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jQuery still does a lot of useful stuff. The best advertisement for jQuery, ironically, is this site: http://youmightnotneedjquery.com/ http://youmightnotneedjq

jQuery still does a lot of useful stuff. The best advertisement for jQuery, ironically, is this site: http://youmightnotneedjquery.com/ http://youmightnotneedjquery.com/ Look at how simple things are in the left column, and how much more code is needed in the right column. jQuery has many convenience features such as chaining, for example: item.addClass('selected').siblings().removeClass('selected'); and you don't have to check for nulls after each selection. Many functions such as closest() and remove() have no equivalents in IE11, and other things such as replaceWith() and before() are not available even in Edge. For simple sites it is easy enough to remove jQuery, but for more complex javascript applications, especially apps that have a lot of interactivity, removing jQuery will result in more code, or you will end up writing a lot of utility functions thereby creating your own little clone of jQuery.

adventured 8y ago
I agree. I still use it from time to time when initially hacking together a project. It makes my development process faster and easier. I never have problems with it. The primary concern between start and launch is getting to done, not shaving 20kb or 30kb off (if it was 300kb or 500kb that would be a different matter). As I get to roughly 85%-90% done, or sometimes post launch, I'll then allocate time where it makes sense to removing jQuery and pursuing further optimizations. Eliminating jQuery is toward the bottom of the list of reasonable concerns when it comes to making a new product successful. I have more than two decades of experience with JavaScript, and there are numerous things that are simplified to a point of fast, no concern development triviality with jQuery. If it's useful to your development process, use it.
dylan604 8y ago
> Look at how simple things are in the left column, and how much more code is needed in the right column. This is misleading. Sure, that immediate code is cleaner in the left column. However, to do that, you have to have the entire JQuery library loaded as well. Sure, it's hidden, but the library looks like the code on the right column. I'm not knocking JQuery, as I use it a lot.
- interlocutor 8y ago
  >>However, to do that, you have to have the entire JQuery library loaded as well. But you didn't have to write that code or debug it.
  - Nimelrian 8y ago
    Nowadays you'd use fetch anyway which would reduce that code to not much more than the jQuery samples. That is, if you don't need to support IE (And I feel like we're finally in the phase where it slowly, but steadily dies off). Otherwise you can ponyfill it.

adventured 8y ago

I agree. I still use it from time to time when initially hacking together a project. It makes my development process faster and easier. I never have problems with it. The primary concern between start and launch is getting to done, not shaving 20kb or 30kb off (if it was 300kb or 500kb that would be a different matter). As I get to roughly 85%-90% done, or sometimes post launch, I'll then allocate time where it makes sense to removing jQuery and pursuing further optimizations. Eliminating jQuery is toward the bottom of the list of reasonable concerns when it comes to making a new product successful. I have more than two decades of experience with JavaScript, and there are numerous things that are simplified to a point of fast, no concern development triviality with jQuery. If it's useful to your development process, use it.

dylan604 8y ago

> Look at how simple things are in the left column, and how much more code is needed in the right column. This is misleading. Sure, that immediate code is cleaner in the left column. However, to do that, you have to have the entire JQuery library loaded as well. Sure, it's hidden, but the library looks like the code on the right column. I'm not knocking JQuery, as I use it a lot.

interlocutor 8y ago
>>However, to do that, you have to have the entire JQuery library loaded as well. But you didn't have to write that code or debug it.
- Nimelrian 8y ago
  Nowadays you'd use fetch anyway which would reduce that code to not much more than the jQuery samples. That is, if you don't need to support IE (And I feel like we're finally in the phase where it slowly, but steadily dies off). Otherwise you can ponyfill it.