JQuery: advantages and disadvantages

JQuery has been a blessing for several web developers, experienced and newbie alike. It is a library for Javascript that immensely simplifies programming with javascript providing very easy to use, condensed syntax to achieve even apparently complex tasks with Javascript. The use of JQuery has several benefits over using other javascript libraries or the raw javascript itself but it does have a few negative points that you might want to consider if you plan on developing a website with JQuery as well.

Advantages

• Ease of use
  This is pretty much the main advantage of using JQuery, it is a lot more easy to use compared to standard javascript and other javascript libraries. Apart from simple syntax, it also requires much less lines of code to achieve the same feature in comparison.


• Large library
  JQuery enables you to perform hordes of functions in comparison to other Javascript libraries.


• Strong opensource community. (Several jQuery plugins available)
  JQuery, while relatively new, has a following that religiously devote their time to develop and enhance the functionality of JQuery. Thus there are hundreds of prewritten plugins available for download to instantly speed up your development process. Another advantage behind this is the efficiency and security of the script.


• Great documentation and tutorials
  The JQuery website has a comprehensive documentation and tutorials to get even an absolute beginner in programming to get the ball rolling with this library.


• Ajax support
  JQuery lets you develop Ajax templates with ease, Ajax enables a sleeker interface where actions can be performed on pages without requiring the entire page to be reloaded.

Disadvantages

• Functionality maybe limited
  While JQuery has an impressive library in terms of quantity, depending on how much customization you require on your website, functionality maybe limited thus using raw javascript maybe inevitable in some cases.


• JQuery javascript file required
  The JQuery javascript file is required to run JQuery commands, while the size of this file is relatively small (25-100KB depending on server), it is still a strain on the client computer and maybe your web server as well if you intend to host the JQuery script on your own web server.

Well, as you can see the advantages heavily outweigh the negative effects of using JQuery so it is without a doubt a winner if you are looking to develop an interface using javascript commands.