[voidfiles]

Besides what jresig has already said, it's okay for there to be many answers to the same question. It's just like having two open source rendering engines, at least, Mozilla, and Webkit, that don't cannibalize one another. I don't think two approaches to mobile using jQuery will cannibalize one another.

[raganwald]

I did not say that there shouldn't be multiple answers to the question, however if you're starting a new project today, you don't have a choice between A and B, you have a choice between something here today and something else promised Real Soon Now. Naturally, the one promised Real Soon Now is extremely shiny, it supports every browser, and it hasn't made any compromises to do so.

This kind of situation forces people to sit on their hands, which means that development stalls for a while. I won't go any further because I'm fighting the urge to compare this to things that have happened in other marketplaces, and I greatly respect John's code and design taste.

[detst]

I made the point in another comment but, in the case of jQTouch, I would like to see some evidence of any real development to be stalled. It seems they've transfered focus to Sencha Touch. As for that, it's a commercial product; if anything, this announcement should accelerate their development.

[raganwald]

Ah, I see the misunderstanding. I don't mean that it stalls framework development, I mean it stalls projects. If I'm starting a new project today for a mobile app, do I go with jQTouch today? Or do I wait and see how jQuery Mobile goes?

This happens all the time in the industry. Familiarity breeds contempt, so it's easy to make a list of problems with jQTouch. But whatever is announced but not shipping has no bugs. It has no performance trade-offs. It is effortlessly compatible with mobile devices back to the Radio Telephones of the 1970s. And its programming model is intuitive, flexible, and powerful with no learning curve.

How can you resist waiting? What project is so urgent that you take a chance targeting jQTouch when it will obviously be made extinct by jQUery Mobile? So an announcement has a chilling effect on framework use, that's what I meant.

Alas, no way around it, you can't drum up support for it without perturbing the environment a little.

[detst]

That makes more sense. I was interpreting it as getting others to contribute to those projects.

I buy that argument in theory. The problem I have is that there really isn't anything that comes close to what jQuery Mobile is trying to do. Something like this is desperately needed. Sure, Sencha Touch is trying to do something similar but I don't think it's really in any state at this point to have the effect you describe.

As for jQTouch, if it fits the requirements, I don't see people stalling projects for jQuery Mobile. If it doesn't, you're either hacking it to do what you want or rolling your own. Both will probably take considerable time.

As for me, since nothing else out there really does what I want, I decided to roll my own highly customized framework. I'll keep a close eye on, and perhaps contribute to, jQuery Mobile.