Just Use jQuery (twitter.com)

For simple, mostly-static pages, go right ahead. For dynamic pages with a lot of interactions... jQuery doesn't scale so well.

depends on what you're building, but you could do worse

i've seen a ton of react apps that had no business being react apps

Dynamic forms, push and page loads are part of the Rails stack. For everything else (which usually isn't a lot) I use jQuery and always have. Sometimes pure JS even.

I never got the hype honestly. However I have been happy with my stack ever since, would I be 10 years younger I may would do node and react as well.

Or just use vanilla JS

For 95% of all websites jquery does a fantastic Job. Damn easy to manipulate the dom or some ajax stuff. No need for other frameworks.

I often make a similiar joke when I am struggling with microservices related bugs or architectural designs.

1: Just use apache + php

2: Use microservices, service meshes, k8s etc.

3: Just use apache + php

Cheap joke though, although it was fun, applications and demands have changed. Especially in the environments I work in today. Although I often, as an excersize, question myself why stuff got so complicated and if this really is the way it should work. And tbh, sometimes the answer, in my opinion, is no.

I'm quite happy with Vue, and the Vue HTTP component loader so I don't have to deal with the build process in Python apps.

I also quite enjoyed Svelte.

I have very little interest in touching the DOM imperatively when a declarative option exists.

I think a lot of people conflate "horrible state of web dev anno 2008" with "jQuery". At the time I heard coworkers talk about things like "oh, just make the variable public"; I had never heard of "public variables" in JS context before, but it wasn't my project and at the time I didn't know much about JS so I just assumed there was a gap in my knowledge. When I later took over the project I discovered that "public variable" meant "put window. in front of it".

I'm not saying jQuery or vanilla JS (which is the same thing, just a different API) is the end-all of everything, but with a bit of care and organisation it's not too hard to make dynamic "modern" sites and even web apps that are fast and can be maintained fairly easily. It is easy to make a mess of things though, as it doesn't guide you through a "framework" and especially in larger teams with different experience/skill levels this can be an issue.

At the end of the day I think this is a "Python vs. Ruby" type of discussion, where both can obviously work well, but both obviously also have their own strengths and weaknesses.

I dislike a certain section of the frontend crowd who thinks that going full-in on WebPack+React+TypeScript+1561 dependencies is the only possible way to build something useful and derides anyone who disagrees (at some point someone called me "the anti-vaxxer of frontend development" over this).

Reactive frameworks are the best. It is so much easier than having to handle events. I also find it way easier to work with a component based framework for complex UIs.

I have 2 production Svelte projects completed, and it is a charm to work with.

Honest question from a backend developer:

Is it still necessary to use JQuery in 2023 instead of vanilla js? I always had the impression JQuery was more useful to decouple you from the pain of multi-browser development in the 2000s dark ages of browser standards adoption.

    $(“.submenus”).hide()

    let submenus = document.querySelectorAll(“.submenus”);
    for (let i = 0; i < submenus.length; ++i) {
        submenus[i].style.display = “none”;
    }

  document.querySelectorAll("p").forEach(e => e.style.display = "none")

    for (const e of document.querySelectorAll("p")) { e.style.display = "none" }

  const $ = s => document.querySelectorAll(s);
  const hide = e => e.style.display = 'none';
  $('.submenus').forEach(hide);

  const $ = s => document.querySelectorAll(s);
  NodeList.prototype.hide = function () {this.forEach(e => e.style.display = 'none');};
  $('.submenus').hide();

jQuery is the "just works" of Javascript. There's no build step required, it's plug 'n play.

jQuery and PHP's ease of integration was what helped get me from HTML + CSS to interactive websites.

Long may they continue.