Favorite javascript libraries, what you use them for, and why you think they're dope. Go!
Two of my fav packages for authoring fast-as-possible async ops:
Two packages I wrote for fun:
As a rule of thumb I dislike most libraries as they are too full of crap I would never put on a website in the first damned place. I mean, sure, I could pimp my own very heavily WIP project (cheap plug)
But in deployment I still just pick and choose from it what I'm actually going to use and say to hell with the rest. Even so my library is mostly just ECMAScript polyfills for some of the more useful string/array functionality, making AJAX easier/more consistent, and some DOM/class manipulation... To me a good library should enhance how JavaScript works, and NOT try to supplant or be the only means of providing core functionality.
I think most of my distaste for them come from the ones that call themselves "frameworks" as... well -- let's be frank -- mind-numbingly idiotic halfwit ignorant CRAP like jQuery or Bootcrap are what gives frameworks a bad name. They try to change how the underlying languages (HTML, CSS, JS) work, and do such a piss poor job of it they often directly violate every good practice that's been established over the past two decades... Basically, I've been programming for four decades, I know nube predating snake oil when I see it.
As I'm ALWAYS saying everything I've ever seen built with jQuery falls into one of three categories:
1) Stuff that would be less code without the framework
2) Stuff that is HTML or CSS job, and has no business in the JS
3) Stuff that has zero damned business on a website in the first huffing place!}
VERY FEW libraries or frameworks I've ever looked at stray from the above description. I can't even think of one off the top of my head that I would use by choice... though I've HAD to learn most of them since quite often the people in charge of making that decision aren't qualified to do so.
But we're in the age of glam and glitz. Form over function, so people just continue to piss on websites from orbit with scripttardery with zero regard for accessibility, usability, sustainability, calling into question all of the developers abilities!
Since to be even more frank, for MOST of what people throw JavaScript at these days is stuff that has no business being done client-side at all!
Simple fact is in most cases people dive for the frameworks before they know enough about HTML, CSS, or JavaScript to even know if how the framework is doing it is any good, much less actually saves them time or is easier -- which is why MOST of the time when people talk about certain frameworks being "easier" I HAVE NO ***ING CLUE WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!!!
See my article here for more:
Siddarthan Sarumathi Pandian
Full Stack Dev at Agentdesks | Ex Hashnode | Ex Shippable | Ex Altair Engineering
Lodash - All array operations (I used to think Underscore was a really good library, but as my old pal Sai would say, LodAsh is Underscore on steroids).
Moment.js - All operations related to time. Truly a life saver when it comes to dealing with time zones.
Async - Duh, obviously!