Preppy 0.1 CSS Selector

One of the best alternatives for XML in building an efficient Ajax based application is to use CSS. With CSS, developers could stream data from outside sources efficiently. At the core of CSS is the CSS selector. This small function could provide a vast difference in the efficiency of the CSS.

Developers have built different types of CSS so that their functions could be compatible with data streaming. The selector helps CSS target the specific HTML so that it could be properly executed in the client side.

They are very simple to be used in simple CSS setting and would even be highly efficient if the selector is developed for lightweight execution.

Preppy is a recently released CSS selector. Although still in beta version, it has gained the attention of developers.

Preppy is being actively developed by James Donaghue specifically for different JavaScript and Ajax libraries. Developers could easily launch Preppy to their websites and effectively use CSS.

Advantages:

• Compatibility – Preppy is a highly versatile, lightweight CSS selector. This type of selector has already been tested in different libraries such as prototype, JQuery, MooTools and YUI.

This has also been tested in major browsers and they would seem to work just fine. This CSS selector was also built in compliance with W3C.

• Lightweight – Preppy only has 10k – very small compared to other libraries. The developer of Preppy has effectively compressed everything into 10k.

This might cause some concerns to some developers but a CSS selector is supposed to be lightweight and should stay that way no matter the update.

• Lightning Fast – the effect of a lightweight CSS selector is in its speed. Although it’s still in beta, its lightning fast feature is already noted. It could reduce the speed to more than half when the conditions are just right.

• No External Need – Instead of relying on outside sources to properly implement the functions, Preppy relied on itself to execute the functions. Since no outside function is used, it can load itself without any problems.

• DOM not needed – Easing up the requirement for a heavy library. Developers could build the application without the use of DOM. The functions of preppy will take over DOM and effectively implement the data gathered in the client side.

If you have been looking for CSS selector’s lately, you might have bumped into John Resig’s CSS selector. This is perceived to be the default CSS selector for JQuery. His work is already stable but has been used exclusively for JQuery.

There was no indication that John Resig’s CSS Selector could be used for other libraries but don’t be surprised if it’s fully compatible.

Preppy may be in its infant form but it is very promising that developers are already anticipating the stable version of the CSS selector.

It may take some time but the current performance of Preppy has been very impressive that this version could hold most libraries until the new version of Preppy is released. 

What developers wish for now is the documentation for this selector so that the selector could understood better.