Where is all the Prototype Documentation?

Dietrich Kappe, Wednesday, October 25, 2006 @ 8:00 am

In the recent blowup between Prototype and JQuery, one of the self criticisms coming from the Prototype community was that there isn't enough good documentation of the framework. I don't think that's true. It's simply that the resources are just so spread out that it's hard to find them. Here are some of the resources I used for learning how to use Prototype. Maybe you'll find them useful too.

• Quick Guide to Prototype - based off of v 1.3.1, but still the best place to start.
• Developer Notes for Prototype - great and exhaustive resource with code examples covering the width and breadth of the framework.
• Overview of Prototype - another handy overview of Prototype along with some notes about platform support, etc.
• Prototype.js Documentation Blog - a new blog with frequent links to articles about Prototype.
• Painless Javascript Using Prototype - a Sitepoint step-by-step tutorial.
• Prototype Meets Ruby: A Look at Enumerable, Array and Hash - code heavy look at several Prototype constructs that were inspired by Ruby.
• Working with Events in Prototype - by the same author as above. Based on 1.5.0_pre0
• Creating an Accordian Widget Class with Prototype - really meaty tutorial that relies on 1.5.0_rc0.
• Max Kiesler's 42 Recent Ajax Tutorials - check out the Ajax and Prototype Tutorials section.
• Prototype: Easing AJAX's Pain - From xml.com, another good intro to Prototype
• Low Pro Javascript with Prototype - Blog article on using Dan Webb's extensions to Prototype.

Of course you'll need some information on why not to use Prototype and what it's limitations are. That last is one issue I have with Prototype: there is no standard answer to the question "on the low end, which browser versions does prototype support?" More on that later.

Technorati : ajax, documentation, javascript, prototype, tutorials

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Comments: 5 so far

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1. 

   Thanks for posting this. One reason I started using JQuery was the lack of good documentation for Prototype and what looked like a completely fragmented effort to maintain the library. When I looked at JQuery, not only did it give me the same functionality as Prototype but everything seemed substantially more organized. That included the everything from documentation and plugins to the project leaders and community mailing list. There just seems to be more synergy in the JQuery camp.

   The last thing I’ve heard about the Prototype group getting organized came in this post by, I believe, Justin Palmer:

   http://encytemedia.com/blog/articles/2006/9/5/the-flurry-continues-more-prototype-updates

   No new updates since then (at least none that are obvious). Sam Stephenson, the creator of Prototype, last posted an update on 5/23/2006 which didn’t give much direction either. He wrote:

   “I don’t have a roadmap for Prototype, but version 2.0—the next major release after 1.5—will focus on polishing what we have now, not on adding new functionality.”

   So its hard for developers to get a sense for where the project is going if there’s no indication of a future path.

   I hope this isn’t interpreted as a dig at Prototype because its not meant to be. I’m simply expressing some of the troubles I’ve encountered (and others I’m sure) and why I chose to move on to another library.

   Comment by Rey Bango, Wednesday, October 25, 2006 @ 10:11 pm

2. 

   Useful post. But I’m missing one link:
   http://wiki.script.aculo.us/scriptaculous/show/Prototype
   I use this one the most as it has some easy understandable examples.

   Comment by maYO, Thursday, October 26, 2006 @ 2:45 am

3. 

   Useful post. But I’m missing one link:
   http://wiki.script.aculo.us/scriptaculous/show/Prototype

   Comment by 化工展览网, Thursday, October 26, 2006 @ 2:58 am

4. 

   Um, there is no official and constantly up-to-date documentation, and that is a huge deal. I know I can go to api.rubyonrails.com for _now_ documentation, regardless of what old tutorials I’ve read. Same with most frameworks and languages. This is just a huge glaring fault in prototype, and a list of blogs and admittedly old tutorials doesn’t solve it.

   Sorry man, close but no cigar. That said, I’m still using it, and I’m bookmarking your page as another spot to hunt down those elusive docs

   -mix

   Comment by mixonic, Thursday, October 26, 2006 @ 4:50 pm

5. 

   Here is another source for Prototype documentation with many examples:

   http://www.formar.se/prototype/

   Comment by Alex, Wednesday, January 17, 2007 @ 8:49 am

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