DOM vs Virtual DOM

[nixnerd]

I’m gonna check that out now. Thanks!!

[__]

WebComponents is what I want. I looked at polymer about 12-18 months ago and it just didn’t seem practical. I honestly wasn’t sure how committed google was to it. But I want to try it, now. It’s like a non-insane version of angular.

[nixnerd]

I need to know more about it first. I need to set aside to properly research it.

[shaneisme]

Good video, thanks for sharing.

I’ve been toying with starting a for fun web app to teach myself some stuff, and I’ve been trying to figure out the tech I wanted to use. Might just mess with Polymer…

[nixnerd]

Gents, I just watched that polymer video… I’m really excited and kind of confused. I think it could solve a lot of problems but I’m confused about how to go about using it. The main thing tripping me up is that some things seem LESS abstracted by adding MORE abstraction. Does that make sense?

Like when he does the example of treating a Google map declaratively in the “markup” for lack of a better word… that really confused the hell out of me. It’s got this abstraction layer built in that takes away all the BS you have to deal with to write a Hello World script with the Google Map API. Great. But… aren’t we back to having markup, style and logic mixed?

@traq, Have you gotten further on your polymer journey? I love what I see. Just want to see more.

[__]

Just reading + watching at this point. I don’t know how soon I’ll be trying to actually build something.

It’s got this abstraction layer built in that takes away all the BS you have to deal with … Great. But… aren’t we back to having markup, style and logic mixed?

Well, what about hyperlinks? form elements? video? They all have styling and behaviors that are pretty much “baked in.” I don’t think the idea is to push all style and logic into the markup, but the “standard” stuff — yes, why not?

Concerns are still separated (perhaps more so, in fact): you have an HTML template, a scoped stylesheet, and then your scripting. The difference is that these things are no longer in the main document. They’ve been modularized.

It encourages you to think about what you’re doing, as well. I’m sure there will be some people who build a polymer-menu element with fixed pixel dimensions and hard-coded menu items, but …really, there is something of a “natural pressure” to put the standard, “always-desirable” features into the element itself, and leave the more specific details to css/js in the main document. Custom elements, yes, but they’re meant to be dynamic and reusable, not one-offs.

edit

Speaking of the google-maps element, wouldn’t you like a mapbox element??

[nixnerd]

Speaking of the google-maps element, wouldn’t you like a mapbox element??

Hell. Yes.

They all have styling and behaviors that are pretty much “baked in.” I don’t think the idea is to push all style and logic into the markup, but the “standard” stuff — yes, why not?

I get what you’re saying. The problem I see with tools like these is that I feel at least they make too many assumptions, particularly about our aesthetic. What are those material buttons called Google is pushing? With the ripple effect? Yeah… I think it looks horrible. Really superficial cruft in my view.

Do I have to use the Polymer UI elements? Can I customize them? To what degree?

[__]

Do I have to use the Polymer UI elements?

No. The only polymer element you must use is the polymer-element element, which is used for defining your own elements.

Can I customize them? To what degree?

Yes; you can “extend” existing elements and customize them however you like, or you can create your own in the first place.

The problem I see with tools like these is that I feel at least they make too many assumptions, particularly about our aesthetic. What are those material buttons called Google is pushing?

I don’t think it looks that great, either. The “paper” UI is just a demo, really, to try and get people excited about it.

[shaneisme]

The Paper stuff is a lot of ideas from the new Android that’s coming up.

The whole point of Polymer (and web components in general) are to either a) go out and find something that works how you want and plug it in / style it / customize it, or b) there isn’t anything out there and so you build it yourself and put it out there for others to use.

Polymer, or web components, isn’t changing the way you design stuff or how it works, it’s changing how things are built and then served to the client.

[nixnerd]

Ok… thanks for explaining guys. I’ve played with and hacked on JS for a long time but I’ve only been scratch-writing JS apps for like 6 months… so I’m a little green in this area and don’t even totally have the work-flow down.

In it’s current state, could polymer do anything for me that would make my like drastically better/easier/more productive?

I guess with my CURRENT experience level… I don’t see what Polymer does for me, as I probably don’t get how cool it is.

[shaneisme]

It can, I’m sure, help you out at any level. But implementing it into your workflow might be a larger leap. I actually just started messing with a project I’m doing for fun, and I’m still wrapping my head around everything.

When I get farther along I’ll be better equipped to answer your question :)

[nixnerd]

Sweet dude. Please keep us posted because I find myself really interested in this project.

[Author]

Posts