Picking Javascript Web Framework Poison (YUI and GWT)

This is the second blog I wanted to write about javascript web framework. The first post I wrote covered what I called "lightweight" frameworks and this I plan to cover "heavyweight" frameworks.The heavyweight frameworks that I have been working with are YUI and GWT. The heavyweight frameworks    longer learning curve and a problem that requires more complex UI.

YUI
For the last six months I have been working on a couple projects using YUI. The set of UI widgets that YUI supports are very impressive. YUI is very fast to develop in. One of the projects I am working on has tons of dialog boxes, data tables and other thick client features which YUI makes dead simple and quick to use. Yahoo using this for there main site has made it very easy to support multiple browsers. For me this is perfect for a project that has lots of features.

GWT
Recently I have started to learn Google Web Toolkit (GWT). The amazing part of GWT is that is is optimized produced per browser optimizations. Since you generally don't write any javascript just Java which is compiled into Javascript the code will be cross browser compatible. The largest downside is learning curve because if you don't know Java (first language I taught myself) it is going to be painful. However the UI widgets are nice and it is blazing fast. This is on the high end of the framework however the effort is worth it if you are dealing with high volume of users or you need as fast an application as possible.

To GWT or to YUI?
So it comes back to combination of the needs of the project. My guess is that most of the time either having the skill set of Java or getting developers to learn Java to use GWT will not be worth it. If the project is significant volume of users (IE browsers) because I think performance is alway a critical aspect to user experience then GWT is the way to go. Most application start small and don't have the resources to use GWT so I would think YUI is a better choice.

Tool for the Job (IMO):

• jQuery - small simple quick application that does not need a lot of AJAX
• Dojo - I don't think there is really a need for something between jQuery and YUI but there might be if a project developers already have experience with Dojo and the project is pretty small
• YUI - A good size application and I think the majority of projects fall under. Probably the most useful framework in the group to start a project on.
• GWT - end all be all (currently) I think the most ideal solution if the resources allow for it because the end user gets the maximum performance.