GX Framework

Animation is not really a strong feature of JavaScript. While there are animation features found in JavaScript, the programming language is more efficient in data and online application development. This could be the niche that made Flash and Flex where it is today.

Some Ajax applications even rely on Flash if they want to launch videos. The reason for the lacking animation capability of JavaScript is because it wants to launch everything in the client side without transforming data that could be easily read by browsers. Load time is longer and might even be interrupted without strong internet connectivity.

This challenging feature in JavaScript could hopefully be changed by a small framework called GX. This type of framework is specifically created to handle animations and effectively run then in JavaScript and Ajax based applications. It promises to be lightweight yet efficient as it uses w3c approved CSS.

Using CSS may sound odd but videos and other animations are also data. Technically, they can be extracted and used by CSS. With the help of GX as its framework, load time for animations and videos would be possible. The framework’s main library for efficient implementation is jQuery.

Even though GX is geared towards animations, the following can be enjoyed in the framework:

• Less coding – GX uses the increasingly popular jQuery library. Instead of requiring developers to work more on coding, the framework will only require developers to concentrate on animation.

This feature may sound limiting at first but jQuery is a very extensive library. Almost any function imaginable in JavaScript has a counterpart in jQuery.

• No repeated codes – GX aims to simplify a lot of things including the implemented functions. Instead of pushing for more codes and variables in each function, it will emphasize on no repetition so that the application will read the codes faster.

Of course, this will require some resources on user’s end but because GX is a lightweight framework, loading functions in various browsers will be easier.

• No browser sniffing – instead of extra stages required by most Ajax based application, GX forgoes browser sniffing for speedier implementation. This might sound a little bit risky on the part of GX framework, but you have to remember that the core of GX coding is the jQuery library. jQuery is already known as a cross browser library so any sniffing is no longer required.

Challenges to GX Framework

GX is a very small framework (10kb) which is very impressive. However, it will require a lot of work from the developers in terms of manipulating animation. Users might also have a hard time accessing these applications if the client side requirement will be increased. Using purely JavaScript engine to skip through other functions, GX will ask a lot from users who wanted to launch animations with JavaScript.

But even with the challenges, GX framework is very promising. The framework is also a signal that JavaScript is slowly but surely extending its features to the world of animation. Although JavaScript can’t be at par with Flash, it should be able to provide functions that may not be found in other programming languages.