jQuery

jQuery, as well as other early Javascript libraries, were born to solve a traditional lack of the language: the cross browser compatibility, since at that time it was very difficult to deal with the differences between the different implementations of Javascript and DOM objects. At the same time, it was intended to provide a greater simplicity in the functions of manipulation of the elements of the page.

To understand the reason for the creation of jQuery we therefore have to go back to the time of the “browser wars“, where each web client made particular use of the standards and tried to stand out from others by constantly publishing new, but proprietary features.

Therefore, in 2005 (initial release of jQuery) we were faced with a scenario in which it was difficult to develop client code for the web with Javascript, since each browser had its peculiarities. It was up to us developers to deal with these differences, creating code that is compatible with everyone (code “cross browser“). This made even the most elementary functionalities very complicated to implement and had to be developed.double or triple the work su we wanted a website to be perfectly usable in all popular browsers.

So jQuery and other alternative libraries came to save frontend development and start a new stage in the world of the web. These libraries proposed a homogeneous API to develop all kinds of functionalities in the browser. In this way, the functions that jQuery provided could be used and the code could be executed without major problems on any platform, despite the fact that each browser had its differences. Thanks to that, the work for a frontend developer became much easier and more grateful and maintaining dynamic interfaces for the web became a viable task.

In addition, jQuery offered a programming interface to make features quickly, which would be much more work if done manually. As a result, developers could write a lot less code to get more done (this is the slogan of the bookstore) and they could incorporate advanced features for that time in a very simple way.

In parallel, jQuery created a very convenient way to reuse and share code in the community, in independent modules capable of performing all kinds of functions. We refer to the jquery pluginswhich allowed developers not to have to constantly reinvent the wheel and offered an extensive collection of interfaces and advanced functionalities, which we are able to immediately incorporate into any website that needs it.