Question

I would like to know how much time (in percent) does JavaScript development takes at your work. I work with complex rich-internet applications and i spend most of my time in JavaScript development.

And you: how much time do you you spend in JavaScript development and what do you do to reduce it ?

regards,

Answer 1

I spend quite a bit of time in Javascript (and CSS) development, because I believe in not having any postbacks (or fake postbacks with ASP .Net AJAX) at all, but in rich client side experiences that don’t use too much bandwidth. Therefore, I tend to write most of the server interaction by hand instead of using ASP .Net features.

This means a lot of Javascript, but a vastly superior user experience.

To reduce development time, use jQuery. I repeat, use jQuery.

jQuery has saved me and many other people countless hours of development time. If you need to do something that jQuery can’t do out of the box, search for an applicable plugin. If you aren’t using jQuery already, you will be endlessly grateful. jQuery hides all of the differences in the HTML DOM between browsers, makes animations infinitely easier to implement, and does lots of other useful things too.

Also, use FireBug; it makes layouts much easier to debug and play with, and makes Javascript much easier to test.