Slides from my talk at @Media Ajax

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

2. 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

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

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

5. Changes In Cost Are
Changes In Capacity

6. Complexity Is The New
Dominating Factor In Cost

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

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

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

10. So How Are We Doing?

11. 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

12. 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

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

14. For Applications,
HTML/CSS Are Liabilities

15. 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?

16. Platform Capacity Is The
Ability To Grow New
Semantics

17. 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

18. When Are You Going To
Talk About Dojo?

19. 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

20. 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

21. L&F Responsibility

22. Developer User Experience
<a href=quot;images/depot.jpgquot;
dojoType=quot;dojox.image.Lightboxquot;
group=quot;myTravelsquot;
title=quot;Photo of a Train Depotquot;>A Train Depot</a>
<a href=quot;images/greenville.jpgquot;
dojoType=quot;dojox.image.Lightboxquot;
group=quot;myTravelsquot;
title=quot;A Photo of Greeneville, TNquot;>Greenville</a>

23. 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”)
});

24. a11y & i18n Concerns
• Incredibly robust keyboard handling code
• All Dijit widgets fully WAI ARIA augmented
- role=quot;wairole:dialogquot;
- 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

25. 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

26. 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

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

28. Dojo Expresses
Platform Capacity

29. ...But We Wish
We Didn’t Have To

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

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

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

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

34. For Everyone

35. Build With, Not On