jQuery - the best JavaScript library?

Over the past few years we've noticed an ever increasing number of JavaScript libraries like Yahoo, Prototype, MooTools... It's cool that there's so much effort going into these. But sometimes having so many options available isn't a good thing. Potential problems include:

• every new library is, really, a new programming language
• using several libraries may confuse a web developer when changes to the code have to be made
• even though libraries may be similar, every new one means you have to use a different syntax
• code written in one library can be incompatible with the code written in another one

So the choice for us is obvious. We need to decide on one multi-purpose library that will meet our requirements and is easy to learn and use. After a long discussion (and a few differences of opinion!) we made the conclusion that Squiz UK is going to use jQuery from now on.

jQuery is a relatively new lightweight web application framework, released at BarCamp NYC by John Resig. The decision to use this library was based on the following:

• user-friendly syntax - easy to learn and use
• well documented on its website - wide range of tutorials
• powerful - handles AJAX
• recommended at AJAX conference (info thanks to Raf - Squiz's representative at that conference)
• supports most (if not all) web browsers (Firefox, IE, Safari, Opera, NetScape)
• it is supported by Google

What's more, additional information regarding jQuery can be found in the following books:

• "Pro JavaScript Techniques" by John Resig
• "Learning jQuery" by Karl Swedberg and Jonathan Chaffer

So lets put it into action. Here's an example of how easy it is to use:

Cool and easy example.

Author: Lukasz Pelc
Published: 06 Dec 2007 12:42pm