does dojo have something like ThemeRoller? that really makes jQueryUI element styling very easy.
someone also noted here that they like the new dojo AMD business.
i have an issue with that as it is a major change to the dojo library that caused me headache when upgrading to the latest esri js api.
Why should my code have to change because the dojo people found a new way to do something and esri adopted it?
additionally, the dojo documentation is a disaster when you look at it as an outside who has worked extensively with jQuery and their docs.
the esri js api is not like the other client apis in that there is no "JS Map Viewer" - a comprehensive, foundational, proof-of-concept codebase that comes from esri as a guide and starting point to produce a full featured mapping application. What we have are hundreds of samples that all perform one task only.
I can't think of a better example of this than the table of contents slash legend. There are esri samples for adding a layer list, toc, legend whatever you want to call it. But there is no sample that lists the names of the map layers, the legend swatch AND a checkbox to turn the layer on and off. To achieve something like that you need to roll your own. which means you need your app to have a centralized 'brain' to monitor all of the layers and legend swatches.
Where i'm going with all this is that i think jQuery is a better choice for building that 'brain'.
Don't get me wrong, the esri samples are great, i am thankful for them and use them daily.
But its somewhat akin to learning how to speak a foreign language using a dictionary.
