Yambo's Blog
Our Blog » What is jQuery?
What is jQuery?
jQuery is a free and open source library of popular JavaScript functions. These can be used to add navigation, handle events, perform animations and add Ajax interactions to webpages. It is licensed under the MIT License and the GNU - General Public License.
jQuery is one of the most popular JavaScript libraries out there at the moment. One of the main benefits jQuery has over other JavaScript libraries is how easy it is to use and how well documented it's examples are - it makes complicated things seem a lot easier, especially when it comes to making JavaScript cross browser compatible.
It not only makes implementing JavaScript easier for programmers but makes their work more efficient. It's so well supported and documented that it is almost it's own entire language - and this makes it ideally suited for the web. An example of what jQuery can do is on our own homepage, this uses jQuery for it's animated carousel (slider), this allows our site to be more dynamic and interactive.
A popular alternative to JavaScript is Flash - Flash, compared to JavaScript, is easier to set-up and run, and is ideal for large animations/fluidity. However, most mobile devices do not support it and cannot render it's contents i.e iPhone, iPad, etc. jQuery files tend to be a lot smaller in size compared to an exported Flash file (SWF file) and this has additional benefits with Search Engine Optimisation.
The web is moving more and more towards a mobile market and this is now a crucial factor when considering a website. jQuery is well supported and JavaScript itself is pre-installed on all home computers and majority of browsers. We would always recommend using JavaScript over Flash.
Yambo Web Design - 2011