Sweeping Design

SlickSpeed Selectors Test for Frameworks measures the time javascript frameworks take to return elements with their CSS Selector functions. SlickSpeed is developed by MooTools, but aims to offer unbiased results (indeed, Prototype beat MooTools in my test).

I couldn’t find any results for Spry, so I downloaded the test kit from its home at Google Code. I included Spry 1.6, Prototype 1.6, MooTools 1.2b1, and Dojo 1.0. I tested the default selectors against the default template (an excerpt from As You Like It). I ran the test under Firefox, but will update with results from IE7 and Safari 3 with more toolkits another day. You can run the test yourself here.

Prototype 1.6 and MooTools 1.2b1 basically tie at about 250ms, while Spry and Dojo take about twice as long.

Spry may be excused for finishing last as Adobe just introduced the Spry.$$() CSS Selector in its latest pre-release version 1.6.