FWIW, I was on a jQuery-hating kick before I read this article, which explains some of the beauty behind the jQuery api. http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/201

FWIW, I was on a jQuery-hating kick before I read this article, which explains some of the beauty behind the jQuery api. http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2012/10/09/designing-javascript-apis-usability/ http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2012/10/09/designing-java... I agree that you probably only want to use a small subset of jQuery (e.g., none of the UI, none of the transitions), and zeptojs is actually a really good alternative. But it really does provide some convenience.