Unobtrusive is great but what about unencumbered?

So in the last few years javascript libraries and snippets have popped up like spring flowers gasping for light. One will round corners for you, one will make an image pop out at you, one will make a box spring open, one will make a drawer slide, and so on... All of these libraries, it seems, have their struggles and inadequacies much the same way a CSS/XHTML developer does; browser behaving badly. Where it gets infinitely more complicated with the javascript is that some libraries and snippets will inadvertently interact with one another from time to time, and that's where a whole bag of ugly gets thrown upon the table. What makes this worse? The fact that we can now just throw these bits of javascript sweetness in our html projects without the foggiest notion of how it works and how to fix it should the need arise. And since these are all open source projects, don't expect great support, or any at all, for that matter. And so this is the muddy water I currently stand in, waiting to sort out a scripting issue on a product while I tell my client base that we are doing everything we can.

The long road is getting shorter

You ever get to the end of a project and just let out a sigh of relief? I just finished one of those. It was the kind where there were variables that would go one way, but then needed to come back to another. I shopping cart was required, but it had to be easy to use, but then it had to be expandable for the future. One choice broke one aspect, another choice would break something else. Tax calculations, shipping calculations, inventory calculations... You see, I am a digital download guy and exempt from all those bothers. But on this project I had build a store for tangible goods in a state that doesn't take tax lightly.

Anyhow, this job is complete with the exception of a few tweaks here and there. I'll let you know when you can see it.

I shall not follow the heard

I can't begin to describe my frustration! Once single javascript library is throwing a monkey wrench into my entire process! The venerable MooTools, who I have no use for, but many services I use do, is not a team player it seems when it comes to rounding corners in javascript. They don't believe rounding corners is the job of unobtrusive javascript and instead think that bags full of poor markup, redundant, empty tags, place holders and css should be our only method of rounding a corner in a layout....

So WCAG says we ought not use tables for layouts if we can avoid it..."Tables should be used to mark up truly tabular information ("data tables")." So by that guideline one can only assume that using <b> tags (which is for bolding or adding strength to type) for layout would be equally offensive. I have now tried every javascript library and snippet I can get my hands on to round corners and not a single one will work with MooTools and a Lightbox window. Arghhhh!

Sorry, I just had to vent.