jQuery good or bad?

[Adam]

As web developers would you take the time to develop your own JavaScript code, perhaps even library, or would you use something like jQuery? In the past I've always dismissed the idea thinking it would make me look less of an able developer for using it... However after seeing some of the stuff it can do, so easily, perhaps I have it the wrong way round??

 

Adam

[dropfaith]

i havent played to much with jquery or mootools but from what ive seen done im starting to learn the basics of it and reading them over

 

i dont think it makes you any less of an able devoloper its just using tools that you have available.

 

besides its one more thing you can know and sell yourself with if you get a good understanding of them..

 

couldnt hurt

[Daniel0]

I think it's an awesome framework. I don't think frameworks make you look like a worse developer. There is no point in rewriting what other people already wrote.

[RichardRotterdam]

It doesn't make a developer look bad at all. You will still need to invest time to learn to working with a framework. Other then that you can develop javascript apps a lot faster without re-inventing the weel over and over again.

In my opinion it just makes a developer just spend his/her time more efficient

[Mchl]

Yeah... I know next to nothing when it comes to JavaScript, yet I learned how to use ExtJS to create some feature-rich GUIs I don't even want to think how long would it take for me to learn JavaScript good enough, so that I could create similar library.

[Adam]

Ah well that's good news to me! Cheers!

 

Adam

[jcombs_31]

I love jquery.  I was never much of a javascript developer and it really makes life easy.  I was reading about 1.3 yesterday and it is only getting better.  They have a great API online now too. There is really no learning curve with jquery, the syntax is simple and anyone who knows css can easily start working with it.

[KevinM1]

I love jQuery.  That said, I think that all developers should learn the basics of JavaScript.  It's really not that hard.  Hell the basic structure of using jQuery is the same as well-formed unobtrusive JavaScript.

 

Vanilla JS:

<script type="text/javascript">
   window.onload = function()
   {
      var myButton = document.getElementById("myButton");
      var myDiv = document.getElementById("myDiv");

      myButton.onclick = function()
      {
         myDiv.innerHTML = "Button has been clicked";
      }
   }
</script>

 

Using jQuery:

<script type="text/javascript">
   $(document).ready(function()
   {
      $("#myButton").click(function()
      {
         $("#myDiv").html("Button has been clicked");
      });
   });
</script>

 

The only appreciable difference between the two is that jQuery allows you to select elements and manipulate them all in the same step.  That's why I get baffled when people that can use jQuery just fine have issues with vanilla JavaScript - they should be written in the same manner.

[Daniel0]

Your examples are only similar because you choose an ID selector. Had you chosen a more complex selector then you could immediately have seen a major difference between vanilla and jQuery powered Javascript. Then you have all the cross-browser issues that JS frameworks such as jQuery frameworks. Simple examples like the above simply doesn't illustrate anything.

[zq29]

I know more than the basics of JavaScript, but I much prefer to use jQuery - It's just quicker and easier. Plus it has some cool animation effects etc.

 

Arguably, I could question myself as to why I don't use a PHP framework, though I'd like to think I am much more versed in PHP than I am in JS, and that I'm way too busy to learn one.

[KevinM1]

Your examples are only similar because you choose an ID selector. Had you chosen a more complex selector then you could immediately have seen a major difference between vanilla and jQuery powered Javascript. Then you have all the cross-browser issues that JS frameworks such as jQuery frameworks. Simple examples like the above simply doesn't illustrate anything.

 

I had this long reply all typed up, but as I re-read it, and saw all the caveats ("well, except for AJAX...except for animation...except for cross-browser issues...."), I realized that, yes, I was talking out of my ass.  Not the first time, and probably won't be the last. 

 

Has anyone tried 1.3.1 yet?  I'm still using 1.2.6, but am more than willing to upgrade if most of the bugs have been squashed.

[jcombs_31]

You should be able to upgrade with no problems as they did not change the API.  I have not used it yet but there are supposed to be some nice performance improvements.

[corbin]

Coding parts of jQuery from scratch would take me weeks/months x.x.

 

 

I <3 jQuery, although I often do simple stuff without it.  I usually try to balance out time it would take me to code the JS from scratch and overhead of jQuery.

[Liquid Fire]

I guess it depends on what you want to learn.  I mean if you are looking to know the inner working the pure javascript than i would suggest trying to build your own framework as there is no better way to learn.  For instance I wanted to learn more about MVC so instead of trying to learn MVC from learning a PHP Framework like Zend, of CakePHP, I built my own(because I had a solid understanding of general coding and PHP coding) and it was the best learning expereince as far as php is concerned.  Now if you are just looking to use javascript in your web development that i would suggestion looking into jQuery, it is by far the easiest and best javascript framework i have worked with which include jQuery, Mootools and ExtJS(ofcourse that is just my opinion, the workflow with jQuery just seems so natural to me).

[.josh]

Even if you don't personally care to use it (or a js framework in general), having some idea of how they work/are set up will expand your list of potential clients.  Would be a shame if you had to waste time or worse, turn down a solid job because you had to work with/around something like that and didn't know anything about it.