Sorry but nowadays I feel that jQuery is like php for the frontend: people get results fast but the average code quality is so shitty. Why on earth is jQuery used for things that normal js can do instantly? There are so many libs out there based on jQuery even though this dependency is absolutely unnecessary. I might sound arrogant but people should get an understanding for JavaScript and learn how to use it before stacking layers of abstraction. Ajax with normal JS for example is not so hard. One doesn't need all the fancy angular/jQuery/whatsoever helpers. If one knows the basics it's okay to use some convenience stuff from time to time but I feel that so many low quality devs are solely relying on their precious xxx kb libs just to display a simple hello world.
I have a friend with a web publishing business. She uses guess and check with text edit copy/paste to build websites for clients. I've shown her the console log countless times and she always rolls her eyes when I extoll its value.
She makes 50% more than me, has cash in the bank, and loves her life.
All I have is picking on her javascript. And I'm not even really any good at it.
I think there's no reason to be correct when your goal is to buy food and pay rent.
No offense, but what do you do where a guess-and-check person makes 50% more than you? Is she just hustling for clients who have no idea what they're doing re: web design and using marginal technical knowledge to make pages for them?
I'm totally with you that jQuery is a crutch for a lot of devs, but it's also the easiest way to ensure backwards compatibility for IE 6+. If you have enterprise customers who refuse to upgrade it's probably the most stable way to support them while leveraging the power of modern browsers for enlightened users who have them.
Good that you mention this point. This is for me the main reason to use jQuery in a project: backwards compatibility. I am gladly in the position where I make my own business decisions and so I choose which browsers I want to support. That said I totally refuse to support super-old browsers like IE6. I even refuse to support IE9. If someone has trouble using a site built on modern standards: Go get a modern browser. If it looks shitty on your old IE6 then don't blame me.
