Dojo 1.0:
Great Experiences...
For Everyone
Alex Russell
Project Lead, The Dojo Toolkit

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
• Deficiency needs
- Physiological
- Saftety
- Love/Belonging
- Esteem
• Growth needs
- Exploration, asthetics
- Self-actualization
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow's_hierarchy_of_needs

The Application Hierachy Of Needs
• Deficiency needs
- Platform
- Security
- Social Capacity
- Competition
• Growth Needs
- Integration
- Platform capacity

If The Platform Isn’t
Ubiquitous And Capable,
Another Will Emerge

Changes In Cost Are
Changes In Capacity

Complexity Is The New
Dominating Factor In Cost

Where Are We Fighting Complexity?
• HTML
• CSS
• JavaScript
• Server integration

The Wall Of Complexity
http://flickr.com/photos/kidisland/502242023/

Implements Of War
• Grouping + Encapsulation
• Shared Context
• Patterns of Practice
• Separation of Concerns
• Forgiveness

So How Are We Doing?

Implements Of Failure
• Grouping + Encapsulation
- Server-side includes essentially state of the art
• Shared Context
- HTML/CSS/JS stack wickedly hard to learn
• Patterns of Practice
- Microformats, CSS as emergent semantics
• Separation of Concerns
• Forgiveness
- XML pipe dreams persist, Semantic Web faffery

Semantic Differences
• HTML gives us:
- Platform
- Some security
- Social capacity
- Patterns of practice
- Shared context (common vocabulary)
• The failure to provide sustainable platform
competition leaves us arguing over the scraps

Good Semantics Let You Say
What You Mean
And Get What You Want

For Applications,
HTML/CSS Are Liabilities

Ajax: The “Get Out Of Jail Free” Card
• Within a small band of capabilities, JavaScript
allows us to dig our way out
- Cost is enormous
• Toolkits have exhibited competition and platform
capacity behaviors
• Integration nowhere to be seen
- Example: mirrored validation
- REST? Something else?

Platform Capacity Is The
Ability To Grow New
Semantics

How The Web Gets New Semantics
(decreasing order of leverage)
1.Standardization (W3C, ECMA, etc.)
• Byproduct of competition
2.Invention
• JavaScript “upgrades” or “hot-patches” to pages
3.Convention
• Microformats, CSS patterns of practice

When Are You Going To
Talk About Dojo?

Invention vs. Completeness
• Invented semantics via JS are disadvantaged:
- On the wire
- In performance and integration
- In access to assistive technologies
- In look-and-feel cohesiveness
• Only medium/large-scale investment yeild
complete results today
- Product vs. project

A Toolkit That Invents
Semantics Is Responsible For
All Of These Concerns*
* this argument is both self-serving and disingenuous, however that doesn’t make it false

L&F Responsibility

Developer User Experience
<a href=\"images/depot.jpg\"
dojoType=\"dojox.image.Lightbox\"
group=\"myTravels\"
title=\"Photo of a Train Depot\">A Train Depot</a>
<a href=\"images/greenville.jpg\"
dojoType=\"dojox.image.Lightbox\"
group=\"myTravels\"
title=\"A Photo of Greeneville, TN\">Greenville</a>

Customization
/* structured CSS allows over-rides */
.dijitDialogUnderlay {
background: white;
}
// template system allows complete UI rework
dojo.extend(dojox.image._LightboxDialog, {
templatePath: dojo.moduleUrl(“myApp.tmpl”, “dialog.html”)
});

a11y & i18n Concerns
• Incredibly robust keyboard handling code
• All Dijit widgets fully WAI ARIA augmented
- role=\"wairole:dialog\"
- System support for easily adding role/state info
to your own widgets
• Detection/support for high-contrast mode
- separate theme applied for high-contrast
- structured CSS cascade allows you to easily
provide a11y rules for custom themes and
widgets

Performance Responsiblity
• Time on the wire
• Time-to-render
• Data caching, storage
• Encourage usage of faster paths through better
API design
• “Pay-as-you-go” performance optimization
strategies
- Make each step on the path as painless as
possible

Performance Responsiblity
• Stragegies:
- Tiny Core
- Tightly controlled, curated APIs
- CDN edge-cached, gzip always enabled
- The Build Process
- Completely optional, gradual adoption
- Package system reduces complexity through
grouping

You Can’t Tack These On Later,
i.e., Systemization Matters

Dojo Expresses
Platform Capacity

...But We Wish
We Didn’t Have To

Our Collective Perception Of
Where We Are On The
Hierarchy Is Wrong

The Lack Of Competition Is A
Deficiency That Prevents
Access To Growth Needs

You Should Be Demanding A
Better Future From The People
Who Can Deliver It

Until Then, Toolkits Should Be
Preparing For A Better
Future...

For Everyone

Build With, Not On