I have been doing a lot more work with Javascript lately and I discovered something I really didn't expect: Javascript is a really great language. Developers really owe it to themselves to take a look at this language again, because I have a feeling that most developers are like me in that they last time they used it the most compicated thing you could reliably do was to create cheesy rollovers for images on a web site.

Well, those days are long behind us.

But I admit it, even with apps like Flickr, the apps of 37 Signals, and the many more that clearly demonstrate how powerful Javascript can be, I had a hard time shedding the stereotype of javascript not being "real" programming language.

But in my latest endeavor I began feeling the pull of Javascript so that I could incorporate functionality I had seen elsewhere that I really liked.

I first turned to the experts for guidance. And by "guidance" I mean that I needed good code to steal. There are a lot of good resources for Javascript these days that one could learn a lot from, but Yahoo has done one of the best jobs of packaging and documenting their Javascript widgets for others to use. So using Yahoo's code as a template and guide, I developed my own Javascript Controls or Widgets.

The process of creating the Tag Widget and Filter Widget has given me a new found respect for Javascript as a language. It is surprisingly flexible. Plus, when using Yahoo's UI Framework, which adds a nice event, connection and dom handling framework - it makes the building robust, interoperable javascript applications and components much, much easier.

So why all the Javascript Widgets? Because Javascript is important. Just look around you - this is not a language for amateurs anymore. And if you are going to [re]learn a language, learn how to do it right. And that's why I embarked on this exercise.