Your dilemma is analysis paralysis. jQuery is widely popular because of what it accomplishes, not just its syntax. And its syntax is totally "pure" JavaScript.

Your dilemma is analysis paralysis. jQuery is widely popular because of what it accomplishes, not just its syntax. And its syntax is totally "pure" JavaScript. How could anyone understand jQuery code that couldn't grok "pure" JS? jQuery is pure JS and does not radically alter the syntax. The other camp, CoffeeScript (which I use and love) or "Objective-J"... yes they are different languages that compile to JavaScript but why does it bother you? Check out if you like or need them -- if not, stick to JS with or without libraries. Now get busy =)