Pre-release announcement: YUI 2.4.0, expected in the first half of December

The YUI team is hard at work on the next YUI release, and we want to  
share with you some of the more significant updates that are coming  
when we ship version 2.4.0 (scheduled for the first half of  
December).  This is not an exhaustive summary — just the major changes  
in which we have high confidence at this point.  Bug fixes and minor  
features have been applied throughout the library; a more complete  
release manifest will be made available on the day of the release.  
Any bugs you've filed in SourceForge have been updated with a target/
milestone of 2.4.0 if we're targeting its fix for this release.

If you have specific questions about the release, please reply here.

Regards,
Eric


Release Pre-announcement: YUI 2.4.0
Timeframe: first half of December
*Note: All information issued prior to a release is indicative of our  
current plans and expectations.  While we try hard to deliver on  
stated objectives, any dates or release content projected in a pre-
release message may be subject to change.

Important News about the YUI DataTable Control:
        We've made an important decision to carry forward the 2.3.1 version  
of DataTable in the 2.4.0 release without change.  The work we've done  
since 2.3.1, which includes things like fixed header rows, showing and  
hiding columns, drag-and-drop column sizing, is coming along well but  
is not yet stable and consistent enough for your use.  Given the  
choice between holding back 2.4.0 or holding DataTable out of this  
release, the latter was the better choice.
        I know that many of you are working hard on your DataTable  
implementations today and that this delay is not good news.  I want to  
reassure you that it's not a decision we took lightly, but rather a  
step we needed to take in order to help move this component more  
quickly toward GA status and stability with the required feature set.  
We're fully committed to DataTable and we're excited about the  
progress we're making on it. Over the next few months we'll be  
dedicating even more resources to DataTable, and you can expect to see  
the features mentioned above (and more) in a 2.5.0 release early next  
year.
       

New YUI Components or Features:

1.  YUI Charts Control
        The YUI Charts component will allow you to bring data into the page  
via the YUI DataSource Utility and display that information in the  
form of bar charts, pie charts, and line graphs.  The data  
visualization is driven by a Flash .swf engine that gets its data from  
JavaScript, meaning you get the visual richness of Flash while  
interacting with the Charts Control purely through JavaScript (just as  
you interact with any other YUI component).  If you want to get deeper  
in to the Flash piece itself, its source will be available as part of  
Yahoo's Astra library of Flash componentry.
        As this is the first "hybrid" Flash/DHTML component in YUI, we will  
be releasing this as an experimental component; we'll look forward to  
hearing your feedback on how well this meets your needs as you begin  
evaluating it upon release.  (Josh Tynjala)

2.  YUI Profiler Utility
        Nicholas Zakas debuts his second YUI component in 2.4.0 with the  
introduction of an early-beta YUI Profiler Utility.  The Profiler,  
which can work in conjunction with YUI Test to create performance  
thresholds for unit testing, is a flexible toolkit for measuring the  
performance of JS code.  The YUI Profiler will debut without a built-
in interface in 2.4.0 (we'll add interface elements in subsequent  
releases) but is suitable in its present form for many profiling and  
testing tasks.  (Nicholas Zakas)

3.  YUI Get Utility
        YUI's most prolific author, Adam Moore, is back in 2.4.0 with another  
crucial component — one we're calling the YUI Get Utility.  Get  
provides robust support for asynchronous, on-demand loading of  
resources like script and CSS files.  The Get Utility can be used for  
proxyless external DataSources in AutoComplete and for loading JSON  
data from trusted web services. (Adam Moore)

4.  JSON Utility
        The newest member of the YUI team is Luke Smith, and he contributes  
to 2.4.0 an adaptation of Douglas Crockford's JSON utilities.  (Luke  
Smith)

5.  Selector Utility
        We've thought a lot about element selection and where that  
functionality fits within the YUI model. The first fruits of that work  
arrive in 2.4.0 as the YUI Selector Utility.  If you've been longing  
to have some of the selection sugar you've seen in JQuery right within  
the YUI kit, you'll definitely want to explore this new component from  
Matt Sweeney (author of Animation, Dom, and TabView).


Notable Changes to Existing Components:

1.  Promoting out of Beta/Experimental Status
        We're  moving conservatively but steadily to promote newer components  
to GA status.  2.4.0 sees Button and History move to GA while  
ImageLoader is promoted to beta from experimental.

2.  Rich Text Editor
        This is a big release for the RTE beta.  Dav Glass has been hard at  
work stabilizing and streamlining RTE, and with 2.4.0 it will be  
available in both SimpleEditor and Editor flavors.  Using the lighter  
version of the Toolbar, RTE's total minified K-weight is down to  
~130KB (including all dependencies), while performance and stability  
continue to improve.

3.  Drag and Drop Utility
        Drag and Drop introduces the concept of items that are draggable but  
not droppable -- a big performance boost for elements like floating  
panels that can be moved around but aren't meant to interact in the  
drag-and-drop sense with the items below them.

4.  AutoComplete Control
        As mentioned above, AutoComplete gains the ability (via the new YUI  
Get Utility) to perform proxyless web services requests.

5.  YUI Test Utility
        The YUI Test Utility gains support for asynchronous testing, allowing  
you to perform a test action and then wait a specified amount of time  
before continuing the test.


=========


YUI 2.4.0 is on track for a release in the first half of December.  
Stay tuned to YDN-JavaScript and YUIBlog for more information about  
the release when it becomes available.

Regards,
Eric