7 ms·

JQuery 1.8 Released

220 points by warp 14y ago

solox3 14y ago
jQuery is now modular, but jQuery.com doesn't have the custom download option like they do for jQuery UI's themeroller. When that comes out, it's going to be big news yet again.
- calvin 14y ago
  They've made the build tools modular using grunt. Considering that they have custom download options for jQuery UI and recently added a tool for jQuery Mobile (http://jquerymobile.com/download-builder/ http://jquerymobile.com/download-builder/), I expect it won't be many more months before they add one to jquery.com.
- mythz 14y ago
  jquip (aka jQuery in parts): https://github.com/mythz/jquip https://github.com/mythz/jquip Does include an online builder at: http://jquip.ubixar.com/ http://jquip.ubixar.com/ It's also the only version of jQuery to support Google Closure's advanced compilation mode. Anyway, I'm happy to see jQuery moving into a smaller more modular code-base.
- dmethvin 14y ago
  It's much easier to make jQuery UI modular than it is to make jQuery core modular. You know that you're using autocomplete, tabs, sliders, or dialogs; you can see them on the screen. If you're including jQuery core with several jQuery plugins it won't always be clear which parts of jQuery core you are using, either directly or through those plugins. If you already know your project's dependencies, the grunt build option in 1.8 gives you that flexibility now so there's no need to wait. If you don't know those dependencies, a page of check boxes will just make creating and debugging a working build more frustrating. Closure Compiler Advanced Optimizations promise to automate that process, but we still have a way to go on getting that integrated into jQuery.
kemayo 14y ago
We don’t expect to get any bug reports on this release, since there have been several betas and a release candidate that everyone has had plenty of opportunities to thoroughly test. Ha ha, that joke never gets old. We know that far too many of you wait for a final release before even trying it with your code. So now there is really no reason to wait, and you can find out if there are any bugs you could have reported earlier. Is it just me, or is that overly passive-aggressive for a release announcement?
- bigiain 14y ago
  I didn't read it that way, I thought it was hilarious…
- dmethvin 14y ago
  I hoped it was funny. I also hoped it would take some of the fury off the bug reports from people who hadn't tried any of the betas or RCs and now are finding problems. Like this one that just arrived: http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/12232 http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/12232
  - IanDrake 14y ago
    Honestly, I don't know how you deal with some people's complaints.
- nicksergeant 14y ago
  It's just you.
- paulirish 14y ago
  dmethvin is a surprisingly nice person for being development lead on jQuery dealing with the crazy volume of complaints/ bogus bug reports. He's actually just being lighthearted and jocular here. I can see it from the other perspective, but that's not Dave's style.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
Axsuul 14y ago
jQuery’s selector engine is faster than ever, thanks to a rewrite (well, really two rewrites) by Timmy Willison. Would love to see some benchmarks!
- mattparlane 14y ago
  http://jsperf.com/sizzle-1-7-2-vs-1-8 http://jsperf.com/sizzle-1-7-2-vs-1-8
  - mpd 14y ago
    According to a few runs of this benchmark, a number of these tests are slower in 1.8, particularly selecting by class. That's rather off-putting. I hope it's just me. Using Chrome 21.0.1180.57 on OSX.
    - mattparlane 14y ago
      I ran it a few times as well and most of the benchmarks seemed to be within statistically insignificant margins, except for three which were much faster -- including $('#id'), which has got to be the most common selector (at least it is in my code). I think it's still worth the upgrade.
      - mpd 14y ago
        I use class selection most often, so any slowdown there is a cause of concern for me. The other slowdowns are not as big of a deal, providing it means speedups in more important places.
        dmethvin 14y ago
        On my system these are the results for the class selector test: 1.7.2 4,123 ops/s 242 microseconds/op 1.8.0 4,061 ops/s 246 microseconds/op Are you seeing some large difference? You'd need to be selecting things by class several hundreds of times a second before it could possibly make a difference. In practical terms, the speedup in custom selectors is probably the most important, since they are so slow.
d0m 14y ago
I'm less and less excited when I see new releases of jquery. I guess it's so widely used that you can't add cool stuff without messing with already existing code or pissing some people off. TL & DR for the patch: - some internal rewrite - some small fixes - smaller code size
- HaloZero 14y ago
  I think that's usually the sign of a mature platform. Less super exciting features and better stability and reduction in code-size. It's better than the alternative or greater and greater bloat.
  - ChiperSoft 14y ago
    Thats what I keep saying about Prototype.js
andrewfelix 14y ago
>Automatic CSS prefixing Does this mean I can apply rounded corners via jquery css without having to write 4 separate css properties for each browser?
- ehsanu1 14y ago
  Yes.
- juddlyon 14y ago
  This will come in handy and is very 'jQueryish' - handling browser BS out-of-view so you can get on with your day.
- dfischer 14y ago
  I wouldn't recommend using jQuery to style your site. That sounds incredibly silly. Apply a class that is already properly prefixed. You can use a tool like www.compass-style.org to write one line that writes it for all. Please don't use jQuery for styling.
- eostyx 14y ago
  http://leaverou.github.com/prefixfree/ http://leaverou.github.com/prefixfree/ Thought I'd share this because this was giving me the shits.
shortlived 14y ago
Size reduction wasn’t our primary goal in this version, but we felt it was important to hold the line on code growth, and we definitely achieved that. Does anyone have pointers to examples of specific changes between 1.7.2 and 1.8 in this area?
- dmethvin 14y ago
  A very large number of them were code refactors to take better advantage of gzip; Richard Gibson (gibson042) has become a master of that [1]. It turns out that a good style guide can actually help improve gzip compression as well [2]. Others were things like an optimization for $("body") which we pulled out [3]. Its main job seems to have been to look good on a circa-2008 benchmark that didn't cache its selectors. The Sizzle optimizations that Timmy Willison (timmywil) did pretty much made the jQuery-side optimizations unnecessary anyway. [1] https://github.com/jquery/jquery/pull/788 https://github.com/jquery/jquery/pull/788 [2] https://github.com/jquery/jquery/pull/840 https://github.com/jquery/jquery/pull/840 [3] https://github.com/jquery/jquery/commit/9ebc27db54194c88fa7aed29a8c648c330300ac8 https://github.com/jquery/jquery/commit/9ebc27db54194c88fa7a...
kvnn 14y ago
Hey dmethvin, You guys are doing awesome work. Thank you.
MartinMond 14y ago
Finally we can use border-box box-sizing everywhere! http://paulirish.com/2012/box-sizing-border-box-ftw/ http://paulirish.com/2012/box-sizing-border-box-ftw/ The bug has been fixed: http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/11004 http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/11004
- WickyNilliams 14y ago
  Good eyes! I completely missed that in the changelog. border-box: box-sizing really makes life easier when working with complex layouts. I'm always amused by the fact that old IE's much-berated interpretation of the box model is actually favourable!
  - ethermal 14y ago
    indeed. I can't stand when setting width:100% can actually extend past the bounds of the parent.
    - WickyNilliams 14y ago
      When you strip away years of familiarity and conditioning to accept the standard box model, it's hard not to conclude that it's completely unintuitive and back-asswards!

220 points by warp 14y ago

jQuery is now modular, but jQuery.com doesn't have the custom download option like they do for jQuery UI's themeroller. When that comes out, it's going to be big news yet again.

calvin 14y ago
They've made the build tools modular using grunt. Considering that they have custom download options for jQuery UI and recently added a tool for jQuery Mobile (http://jquerymobile.com/download-builder/ http://jquerymobile.com/download-builder/), I expect it won't be many more months before they add one to jquery.com.
mythz 14y ago
jquip (aka jQuery in parts): https://github.com/mythz/jquip https://github.com/mythz/jquip Does include an online builder at: http://jquip.ubixar.com/ http://jquip.ubixar.com/ It's also the only version of jQuery to support Google Closure's advanced compilation mode. Anyway, I'm happy to see jQuery moving into a smaller more modular code-base.
dmethvin 14y ago
It's much easier to make jQuery UI modular than it is to make jQuery core modular. You know that you're using autocomplete, tabs, sliders, or dialogs; you can see them on the screen. If you're including jQuery core with several jQuery plugins it won't always be clear which parts of jQuery core you are using, either directly or through those plugins. If you already know your project's dependencies, the grunt build option in 1.8 gives you that flexibility now so there's no need to wait. If you don't know those dependencies, a page of check boxes will just make creating and debugging a working build more frustrating. Closure Compiler Advanced Optimizations promise to automate that process, but we still have a way to go on getting that integrated into jQuery.

kemayo 14y ago

We don’t expect to get any bug reports on this release, since there have been several betas and a release candidate that everyone has had plenty of opportunities to thoroughly test. Ha ha, that joke never gets old. We know that far too many of you wait for a final release before even trying it with your code. So now there is really no reason to wait, and you can find out if there are any bugs you could have reported earlier. Is it just me, or is that overly passive-aggressive for a release announcement?

bigiain 14y ago
I didn't read it that way, I thought it was hilarious…
dmethvin 14y ago
I hoped it was funny. I also hoped it would take some of the fury off the bug reports from people who hadn't tried any of the betas or RCs and now are finding problems. Like this one that just arrived: http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/12232 http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/12232
- IanDrake 14y ago
  Honestly, I don't know how you deal with some people's complaints.
nicksergeant 14y ago
It's just you.
paulirish 14y ago
dmethvin is a surprisingly nice person for being development lead on jQuery dealing with the crazy volume of complaints/ bogus bug reports. He's actually just being lighthearted and jocular here. I can see it from the other perspective, but that's not Dave's style.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

Axsuul 14y ago

jQuery’s selector engine is faster than ever, thanks to a rewrite (well, really two rewrites) by Timmy Willison. Would love to see some benchmarks!

mattparlane 14y ago
http://jsperf.com/sizzle-1-7-2-vs-1-8 http://jsperf.com/sizzle-1-7-2-vs-1-8
- mpd 14y ago
  According to a few runs of this benchmark, a number of these tests are slower in 1.8, particularly selecting by class. That's rather off-putting. I hope it's just me. Using Chrome 21.0.1180.57 on OSX.
  - mattparlane 14y ago
    I ran it a few times as well and most of the benchmarks seemed to be within statistically insignificant margins, except for three which were much faster -- including $('#id'), which has got to be the most common selector (at least it is in my code). I think it's still worth the upgrade.
    - mpd 14y ago
      I use class selection most often, so any slowdown there is a cause of concern for me. The other slowdowns are not as big of a deal, providing it means speedups in more important places.
      - dmethvin 14y ago
        On my system these are the results for the class selector test: 1.7.2 4,123 ops/s 242 microseconds/op 1.8.0 4,061 ops/s 246 microseconds/op Are you seeing some large difference? You'd need to be selecting things by class several hundreds of times a second before it could possibly make a difference. In practical terms, the speedup in custom selectors is probably the most important, since they are so slow.

d0m 14y ago

I'm less and less excited when I see new releases of jquery. I guess it's so widely used that you can't add cool stuff without messing with already existing code or pissing some people off. TL & DR for the patch: - some internal rewrite - some small fixes - smaller code size

HaloZero 14y ago
I think that's usually the sign of a mature platform. Less super exciting features and better stability and reduction in code-size. It's better than the alternative or greater and greater bloat.
- ChiperSoft 14y ago
  Thats what I keep saying about Prototype.js

andrewfelix 14y ago

>Automatic CSS prefixing Does this mean I can apply rounded corners via jquery css without having to write 4 separate css properties for each browser?

ehsanu1 14y ago
Yes.
juddlyon 14y ago
This will come in handy and is very 'jQueryish' - handling browser BS out-of-view so you can get on with your day.
dfischer 14y ago
I wouldn't recommend using jQuery to style your site. That sounds incredibly silly. Apply a class that is already properly prefixed. You can use a tool like www.compass-style.org to write one line that writes it for all. Please don't use jQuery for styling.
eostyx 14y ago
http://leaverou.github.com/prefixfree/ http://leaverou.github.com/prefixfree/ Thought I'd share this because this was giving me the shits.

shortlived 14y ago

Size reduction wasn’t our primary goal in this version, but we felt it was important to hold the line on code growth, and we definitely achieved that. Does anyone have pointers to examples of specific changes between 1.7.2 and 1.8 in this area?

dmethvin 14y ago
A very large number of them were code refactors to take better advantage of gzip; Richard Gibson (gibson042) has become a master of that [1]. It turns out that a good style guide can actually help improve gzip compression as well [2]. Others were things like an optimization for $("body") which we pulled out [3]. Its main job seems to have been to look good on a circa-2008 benchmark that didn't cache its selectors. The Sizzle optimizations that Timmy Willison (timmywil) did pretty much made the jQuery-side optimizations unnecessary anyway. [1] https://github.com/jquery/jquery/pull/788 https://github.com/jquery/jquery/pull/788 [2] https://github.com/jquery/jquery/pull/840 https://github.com/jquery/jquery/pull/840 [3] https://github.com/jquery/jquery/commit/9ebc27db54194c88fa7aed29a8c648c330300ac8 https://github.com/jquery/jquery/commit/9ebc27db54194c88fa7a...

kvnn 14y ago

Hey dmethvin, You guys are doing awesome work. Thank you.

MartinMond 14y ago

Finally we can use border-box box-sizing everywhere! http://paulirish.com/2012/box-sizing-border-box-ftw/ http://paulirish.com/2012/box-sizing-border-box-ftw/ The bug has been fixed: http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/11004 http://bugs.jquery.com/ticket/11004

WickyNilliams 14y ago
Good eyes! I completely missed that in the changelog. border-box: box-sizing really makes life easier when working with complex layouts. I'm always amused by the fact that old IE's much-berated interpretation of the box model is actually favourable!
- ethermal 14y ago
  indeed. I can't stand when setting width:100% can actually extend past the bounds of the parent.
  - WickyNilliams 14y ago
    When you strip away years of familiarity and conditioning to accept the standard box model, it's hard not to conclude that it's completely unintuitive and back-asswards!