Quote from: alanpich at Nov 14, 2012, 08:09 AMExt does have some drawbacks, not to mention the steep learning curve; the dom gets gets bloated with endless div tags, and the UI is somewhat limited, but I think the latter is as much of a blessing as a drawback.
Whatever UI framework is used, I think its a good thing to make the elements available somewhat limited. This ensures that developers building custom components all draw from a pool of the same widgets, rather than creating their own each time, giving the mgr interface a conformity and consistancy that means that you can instantly recognise how to use a new interface.
I also really like Ext's ability to create chains of derivitave classes and extending pre-existing components with just a few lines of code. I think this is one of the main plus points for ext, greatly speeding up development time.
I'm not adverse to changing frameworks, but I think it would need a lot of discussion before everyone opts for jQuery 'coz we already know it'
I think you have some good points here and as valid as they are there are trade-offs, personally I think the trade-offs are cost way more than the validity of the points. To your point about consistent UI, I think its fair to say ExpressionEngine addons are very consistent and they are html, css and javascript (jQuery framework in use).
You could always create an API for chained derivitave and also extend existing components, these are all points which can be addressed, after all javascript is a object oriented language.
Everyone will go for what they know and beyond this, people will go for what is easy to learn. ExtJS steep learning curve will throw any seasoned Javascript developer off, how much more those who have a bit of experience with Javascript.
ExtJS might provide some really nice UI elements and easy to use Ajaxy things but I like most other devs who are from a frontend background like to have control over the amount of divs that get nested just to create a element on the page.
Right now there are other CMSes which allow for easy addon development due to the fact that they are not using a framework that builds the UI for them, which is overcomplicated and doesn't have a easy learning curve.
Something that bothers me about ExtJS also is their licensing, I am not sure at what point a addon I am working on becomes commercial, I somewhat think that if I were to create a addon and start selling it and it makes me alot of money I would be subjected to ExtJS license fee. This has never been clarified through all the forum posts that I have read.
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