[wp-hackers] jQuery alternatives?

[Paul Menard]

"They are the WordPress of JavaScript libraries"

Best damn quote so far this year!


On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 8:19 PM, Andrew Nacin <wp at andrewnacin.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Feb 1, 2014 at 4:06 PM, Luke Bryan <lukebryan at sharefaith.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Considering that the only downside of this seems to be that it doesn't
> > officially support ancient IE9 or older browsers, I was curious if
> > Wordpress developers had considered swapping it out or using some other
> > jQuery alternative at some point in the future?
> >
>
> We have no plans to drop jQuery.
>
> Few libraries are more battle-tested than jQuery. They account for things
> that most libraries dismiss as edge cases. And yes, that includes edge
> cases in "modern" browsers, not just Internet Explorer < 8, 9, 10,
> whatever. See also https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7153630. They also
> have been moving forward with their jQuery 2.0 branch, along with newer
> tools (say, modularization), all which show they are willing to continue to
> evolve.
>
> jQuery also keeps our barrier to entry for core development low, because
> we're using a common "language" that is easy to understand, ubiquitous, and
> handles a lot under the hood so we don't need to. They also well-backed by
> a strong team of contributors and they're going to be around for a long
> time. And even if it is slower than some other library than may be out
> there (note -- jQuery is by no means slow, and even then they've been
> making
> huge strides), it's absolutely worth every penny for the convenience and
> wide knowledge factor. All libraries and languages add some sort of
> overhead. The key is to weigh whether the performance cost is worth making
> things easier. Otherwise we'd all be writing in ARM machine code.
>
> We also happen to have a fantastic relationship with the jQuery core team.
> This cannot be overstated. They help us, we help them, and when bugs in
> WordPress or jQuery affect the other project, things get escalated and
> fixed very quickly (like, in a matter of hours). They also share our
> philosophies not only of an open web and a willingness to work everywhere,
> but of backwards compatibility. Shared vision is probably the most
> important thing to consider when we look at third-party libraries.
>
> Nacin
>
> p.s. If you re-read this replacing '"jQuery" with "WordPress," you could
> re-use this as a spirited defense of using WordPress over some other new
> hotness. They are the WordPress of JavaScript libraries.
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