View http://youmightnotneedjquery.com/
The JavaScript world is, for the most part, kind of weird. It’s been around for a really long time, but comparatively it’s only been “accepted” in recent years. I was at an event not long ago, chatting with a gentleman who left for South Africa five years ago, leaving behind a career in computer science to do something not related to computers. It took a solid 10 minutes for a table full of developers to convince him that we weren’t kidding when we told him he should brush up on his JavaScript skills.
Once JavaScript was accepted, it quickly became embraced, followed almost immediately by it being required for a lot of properties on the Web.
There was a time not long ago where requiring JavaScript was considered short-sighted and quite honestly offensive.
As of late, however, it seems as though the world of JavaScript is undergoing another paradigm shift. We were once advised to simply ‘use a library’ to avoid dealing with cross browser issues, but now libraries are beginning to be labeled as ‘bloated’, a word we all love using even though many times it’s our way of calling something old.
We’ve come full circle, thanks in part to the advancement of JavaScript, the adaptation of browser makers, and the prominence of mobile. “Use jQuery, you’ll love it” seems to be morphing into “You don’t care about all that overhead?!”
It’s interesting to me, jQuery changed the world quite honestly. It’s still extremely applicable in my daily life with my projects, but sites like this are a neat and applicable way to keep a knowledgable finger on the pulse of upcoming work and the target environments I have to deal with. Cool informational project, well done.
/via @michaeldick
