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JQuery 1.5.1 released, includes full IE 9 support

184 points| jonknee | 15 years ago |blog.jquery.com | reply

41 comments

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[+] arkitaip|15 years ago|reply
I am incredibly thankful that jQuery exists. The other day I had to code some basic javascript in a environment where embedding jQuery wasn't an option (too much overhead) - boy what a PITA. Basic stuff like writing selectors took forever and I had to resolve to "low level" coding. What would have taken a couple of seconds in jQuery took several hours of research, and trial and error. I planned on adding a basic fading/sliding effect - forget about it. Takes to much time in ordinary javascript.

So thanks John Resig and the rest of the jQuery dev team for making us web dev guys more productive and actually making JavaScript fun.

[+] albertsun|15 years ago|reply
On the other hand... congrats! Now you know more about the inner-workings of jQuery and are a better javascript programmer.
[+] JonnieCache|15 years ago|reply
Remember that jQuery's selectors can be used separately: they're a wrapper around the Sizzle library. It's 5kb after minification and gzip.

http://sizzlejs.com/

Can't speak to the performance relative to JQuery or to raw javascript however.

[+] dualogy|15 years ago|reply
jQuery too much overhead? What kind of environment was that?
[+] jcr|15 years ago|reply
I really do realize computer systems and software are primarily designed for normal people rather than the disabled. I also understand the vastly competitive world of web development and the advantages of having a cool looking, feature rich site.

None the less, I take offense to the part of jquery-ui that is hijacking the web browser UI. It is remapping keys and pointer usage (text selection). This should have never been allowed in the W3C and EMACscript (javascript) standards. Hijacking the browser UI of a disabled person is like kicking the crutches out from under someone just to see them fall and because you think it will make you look cool to others.

Web developers never know how a user-agent is configured and never know the needs of the person using the web browser. Changing how the UI normally works really does hurt, confuse and infuriate many people, and probably more than just the disabled folks.

Sure, disabled people are a very small part of the population, and they typically are not the rich consumers buying the latest and greatest. They may not be your target market, your real customer concern, but excluding them with browser hijacking is unnecessary, and in some ways unfair.

At least please think over...

[+] jeresig|15 years ago|reply
I'm not really sure what you're responding to, specifically. You do realize that jQuery UI (and jQuery Mobile) are both ARIA compliant, right? This means that it's actually far easier to use these UIs then you might expect.

ARIA is very cool stuff - definitely recommend that you check it out! http://www.w3.org/TR/wai-aria/

[+] arkitaip|15 years ago|reply
Not sure that jQuery deserves to be blamed for shoddy interface coding. Any competent web developer knows that you always start out by designing your interfaces so that they work with scripts and plugins disabled [1]. If some - ok, most - devs choose to ignore this design principle then jQuery is hardly to blame.

[1] Obviously there are situations when it simply isn't possible to create fully accessible solutions. Sometimes our hands are tied by management, tech stack requirements, etc.

[+] rhizome|15 years ago|reply
You're right on many points, of course, but hyperboles of cruelty like "kicking the crutches out...just to see them fall and...you think it will make you look cool" don't seem to be grounded in reality.
[+] professortodd|15 years ago|reply
I know that the javascript purists don't like jquery, but I'm a big fan.
[+] jherdman|15 years ago|reply
Really? Why ever not? What do they prefer?
[+] fletchowns|15 years ago|reply
I would have thought the opposite - the more you know about JavaScript the more you will probably like jQuery!