Chapter 1. Getting Started with YUI

Welcome to the first chapter of YUI 2.8: Learning the Library. Throughout this book, we'll be exploring what makes up the library and what it can do for you. By implementing a selection of the available utilities and controls, we can see exactly how each one works and what functionality and tools it leaves at your disposal.

In this chapter we're going to introduce ourselves to the library by taking an overall view of it. The topics that we are going to cover include:

• How to get the library, where to get it from, how to install it, and how to work with it in your own web pages
• Where it came from, what inspired its creation, who made it, and the core ideas behind it
• Exploring the library and investigating what components form its constituent parts
• Where we can find important information and news about the library and places where we can go to for help if we need it
• The licensing issues that surround its legal use
• Who is likely to make the most of it

We'll also go over a brief coding example where you will get down to some proper scripting and find out for yourself just how easy it is to get up and running with the components themselves. This is where you will see the power provided by the library at first-hand.