Partying like it’s 1999

A little under twelve months ago I wrote a post on a JavaScript base file I’d set up:

I could have used an existing frame work, such as the increasingly popular jQuery; I decided to use my own, which contains only the very basics, rather than have a larger file containing rarely used functions

source (emphasis added for this post)

Within a couple of months of writing that, I was a convert to jQuery. There was no single reason for my conversion, from memory some of the reasons where:

  • the selector engine,
  • plugin availability,
  • documentation — both official and unofficial tutorials, and,
  • lazyness

It’s the last one that probably had the biggest influence, I’m too lazy to reinvent the wheel, and without using a framework that’s what I was going to be doing. Frequently. Examples in blogs I read, weather it be group blogs, such as A List Apart, or one person shows, such as CSS-Tricks were all beginning to use jQuery. If I were to stick to my guns and not use a framework, I’d be doing a lot of rewriting.

As for the functions that are rarely used? It’s really only the Ajax group of functions that I’ve never used, for the simple reason that I don’t like Ajax. In many of the situations it’s used, it is often fanciness without necessary function. Then again, ask me about Ajax in a couple of months’ time.

By Peter Wilson

Peter has worked on the web for twenty years on everything from table based layouts in the 90s to enterprise grade CMS development. Peter’s a big fan of musical theatre and often encourages his industry colleagues to join him for a show or two in New York or in the West End.