Develop Reference

JS Plugin Load Issue

What combination of libraries/frameworks would perform best for an HTML5/CSS3/JS app with moving elements? I have definitely done my homework, but I am diving into a world I don't know very well... as far as performance goes at least. Are there principles I should understand before I manipulate, perform logic on and animate DOM elements?
I am going to use AngularJS if I can and should (i'm fairly familiar with the basics now), and my best research has pointed me towards Steroids.js. There are just so many libraries and PhoneGap-like frameworks! Here's what I have found...
This post helped me, but just to get started
Require.js
BindOnce
Titanium
Sencha
Construct 2
WebGL/three.js
FireBase
AngularFire
In short, is there any sort of resource/documentation/reference or testing method of JavaScript load? Or is there any kind of simple answer to this (outside of giving up and learning Objective C, I would really like to be able to use the languages I already know. Thanks for the read :)

In the end, if you want more native functionality to be part of your app, you will have to learn at least two other languages outside of JS: ObjC and Android-flavored Java.
My experience with Cordova was enough to convince me that aiming for a perfectly native-feeling app with Cordova requires you to essentially rebuild a large amount of native functionality in JS, which places you firmly at the mercy of the web core that each OS uses and their limitations. Eventually, you will find yourself using so many libraries to emulate what you can do with the native languages, that the sheer weight of dependencies and their management can very quickly leave you trying to debug shadows.
Even then, there will be things that you have to find hacks for to get near-native functionality for, and performance will hardly ever be as good as a native-language app, especially if you have to load data or resources from outside your application.
My suggestion is that if you must use something like Cordova, give up on the idea that you're going to be creating a 100% native feeling app. If a UI element doesn't work like its native equivalent, don't spend a lot of time trying to force it to work counter to its web roots. Style it appropriately so that users aren't confused by it breaking native conventions, and move on. If you try to fix everything that looks like but acts not /quite/ right, you're going to find yourself in dependency hell and /still/ having to touch native (Java or ObjC) code to get the plugins to work right.

javascript/jQuery code generator

I'm wondering if there is a tool out there that does any javascript code generation. I'm asking because the team I'm on are not web developers. They are VB6 developers.
We are looking at a AJAX, JavaScript/jQuery, JSON, webservices model and was wondering if there were any tools that would provide the basics for JavaScript templates (i.e. jQuery AJAX calls)? Obviously a tool like this, might make the change from VB6 to JavaScript a little easier. It also seems like Code Generation is a buzz word so I thought there might be something for JavaScript.
If not, do you think this would be a good tool to work on (for the basics, as they would have to edit and modify to fit the need of the page)? Or do you think it is a waste of time?

Personally I think this is a complete waste of time. Spend a little time to teach your developers javascript or go another route. Endless time will be wasted tracking down bugs by blindly copying and pasting template data all over the place.

If you feel comfortable in the Java world then you can use as well. So you can code in Java and have the code be generated to Javascript etc.
From the GWT SDK documentation:
The GWT SDK provides a core set of Java APIs and libraries that allow you to productively build user interfaces and logic for the browser client. You then compile that source code to JavaScript. All that runs in the end is plain ol' JavaScript in the browser. Oh, and you can mix in and interoperate with JavaScript in your source code as well.

I recently had a similar thought and found this https://learning.divi.space/jquery-function-generator/
It is a Jquery function generator.

Please share your experience with JavaScriptMVC, alternatives

I have been reading through the documentation on the JavaScriptMVC framework and it looks interesting. I am wondering if anybody here has used the framework, and with what success.
So please share your experience with JavaScriptMVC, if you have any. If you can suggest another MVC javascript framework that is fine to.
Best regards, Egil.

I love JavaScriptMVC. Of course, I am a contributor. Many people have had success with JavaScriptMVC (a few are listed on the homepage). I've used it on 100k lines-of-code projects to simple pages I've made for my friend's parents.
When we give trainings on it, I can tell it requires a shift in how you think about application architecture, specifically with it's focus on Thin Server Architecture. It also is another set of 'rules' to learn. But the great thing is that if you and your team learn and follow these rules, it becomes really easy to maintain and fix other people's code.

I have no experience with JavascriptMVC. However another really famous MVC framework for Javascript is ActiveJS http://www.activerecordjs.org/ which came out about a year ago. It's by Aptana the people who make Aptana Studio and Jaxer (server side javascript). I do believe that would probably hold more merrit as Jaxer is amazing technology so I have no doubt Aptana have thought about this a lot.
I also use a jQuery project called Ajaxy which offers Controllers to Ajax requests in my own projects. http://github.com/balupton/AJAXY/

I have no experience with JavaScriptMVC, but here goes my two cents: My background is mostly C++/Java nonetheless I have been doing web programming for a year now, mostly actionscript, but also server side java, and javascript, css, and so on. I've been initiated in a Javascript/DWR project recently and I'm using PureMVC, which I already use and like on my works on flex/actionscript. PureMVC is the single most popular mvc for flex/actionscript btw. It also has been ported for dozens of languages and since its conception had a language agnostic approach in mind.
You might be aware of how similar the syntaxes of actionscript 3 and javascript are, so it's really easy to jump from one thing to the other. Therefore I think that would be one point in favor for you checking PureMVC out.

JavascriptMVC is lightweight, simple, non-obtrusive. We've had good experience with it.

Do javascript developers need to know jquery?

If you were to hire a javascript developer would you expect them to know jquery?
I just started using stack overflow this week and knew that jquery led the pack, but didn't realize the extent of it until I noticed that MooTools (my favorite) has 59 questions while jquery has over 4000. (of course, a good statistician could attribute jquery having more questions to it's usability, rather than it's popularity--but we know that's false)
And then I started noticing that many people post questions with the tag "javascript" but not "jquery" when every line of their code is jquery--like it's the de facto javascript 2.0, or that they don't even realize they aren't writing "javascript" but rather jquery.
Anyway, I ask this because I've always been freelance and could use whatever framework I want on a project. But lately I've been recommended to be the front-end developer for a couple companies. I want a feel for the community's expectations to know if I should put some other personal projects on hold to pick up jquery before exploring the positions that might be offered.

No. I'd expect them to know how JS works. A good JS developer will pick up jQuery in less than a week, probably a few hours.
A developer who knows jQuery but doesn't know JS has a great deal to learn and would only be considered for the most junior roles.
jQuery is definitely not JS2.0 - it's a great standardisation framework if you still need to target IE8 and the like, but it's not great at mobile, it can't be loaded with async or defer, it doesn't support newer features like passive events, and its primary optimisations are about finding elements in an already built DOM (which means it doesn't add much value for client side DOM builders).
I would expect them to have heard of it, and be able to talk about its strengths and weaknesses against other frameworks.

They should at least know what JQuery is, and be able to tell why they chose it or another framework. Next to that, a basic understanding of the most popular javascript framework can never hurt.

I started off when I came across mootools and have not looked back since. But recently, I have spent a fair amount of time polishing my 'vanilla' javascript and have also started looking at jquery (out of sheer curiosity ). Turns out, you need to understand a lot about the frameworks, the differences between them and how javascript works if you want to be able to translate your skills and be able to refactor code between them freely.
for example, consider this as the logical code refactoring between the 2 frameworks
mootools
$("elementId").addEvent("click", function() {
this.setStyles({
border: "1px solid #000"
});
});
jquery
$("elementId").click(function() {
this.css({
border: "1px solid #000"
}); // fails.
});
I was surprised to discover jquery did not work - and then considered that mootools extends the elements' prototypes by adding .setStyles whereas jquery is function based. the fix is obviously to use $(this).css instead - only it's not that obvious at first. It made me realise it would take more than reading the interface docs to be able to swap between the two.
as somebody said, it would take a week to pickup on all of the nuances of jquery even if you have a strong-ish javascript/mootools (or other framework) background, but it won't be such a challenge. moving from jquery over to mootools, however - won't be such an easy task if you are not well versed in vanilla javascript and OOP.
the short answer is, I wouldn't expect a javascript programmer to just know jquery but I'd expect a jquery user to learn about javascript.

JQuery is a very important part of javascript development these days, so yes I would expect a JS developer to know how to use it even if its just the basics.
One of the reasons that it has suddenly gained momentum in the business app development arena is that Microsoft have given it their backing and have agreed to have it distributed with their latest web frameworks (See ASP.NET MVC).

It all depends on what they were developing.
If the web application extensively used ajax, which you could argue it should if possible) then JQuery is a excellent way of doing this. JQuery reduces development times over solely javascript.
Bottom line, if it was me doing the recommending Yes, know both

I would expect JavaScript developer to know jQuery because it's famous for a reason.

I wouldn't expect them to know jQuery, if they could use it, then it'd be better, since I prefer jQuery to all of the rest. It is possible that he/she has their own preference over jQuery, as many people do.

Jquery is pretty popular these days. It make development much more efficient and easy. And there are tons of plugins and scripts available to choose.

What had happend to Trimpath Junction Javascript Framework?

I've been desperately searching for a Javascript MVC framework to create rich client side applications with a Rails backend and I come across junction framework. It highly appeals to me due to its similarity with rails and offline capabilities. but unfortunately it has not been actively maintained for a long time.
I just wanted to know if the project still alive or I should look where else for a viable solution.
I know about sproutecore and cappuccino and I'm taking a close eye on them and their development process. But I'm really reluctant to learn something like a new language for this manner. In fact cappuccino using objectiveJ which is literally a new language running inside javascript.
IMHO, the killer framework would be something similar to Rails in structure, (as rails has already proved itself as a de facto structure for frameworks and has been ported to a lot of other frameworks) and uses jQuery to work with the dom and perform ajax calls. I still couldn't find it.

I'm not sure if it is still actively being developed.
I've been using Trimpath quite extensively myself lately and I didn't miss any features.
I sure hope it's still being developed but it's a great tool and really reduces development time.

I've searched for junction on the web and as far as I can tell the project is dead.

Try Ejscript: http://ejscript.org/products/ejs/webFramework.html

I'm a dev on Ejscript. The project not dead, just very focussed on embedded.