JQuery_ Novice to Ninja - Earle Castledine [9]
And if every single night is still too infrequent for you, you can use the Subversion repository to retrieve the latest up-to-the-minute source code. Subversion is an open-source version control system that the jQuery team uses. Every time a developer submits a change to jQuery, you can download it instantly.
Beware, however: both the nightly and Subversion jQuery libraries are often untested. They can (and will) contain bugs, and are subject to frequent changes. Unless you’re looking to work on the jQuery library itself, it’s probably best to skip these options.
Uncompressed or compressed?
If you had a poke around on the jQuery download page, you might have also spied a couple of different download format options: compressed (also called minified), and uncompressed (also called “development”).
Typically, you’ll want to use the minified version for your production code, where the jQuery source code is compressed: spaces and line breaks have been removed and variable names are shortened. The result is exactly the same jQuery library, but contained in a JavaScript file that’s much smaller than the original. This is great for reducing bandwidth costs for you, and speeding up page requests for the end user.
The downside of the compressed file is readability. If you examine the minified jQuery file in your text editor (go on!), you’ll see that it’s practically illegible: a single line of garbled-looking JavaScript. The readability of the library is inconsequential most of the time, but if you’re interested in how jQuery is actually working, the uncompressed development version is a commented, readable, and quite beautiful example of JavaScript.
Anatomy of a jQuery Script
Now that we’ve included jQuery in our web page, let’s have a look at what this baby can do. The jQuery syntax may look a little bit odd the first time you see it, but it’s really quite straightforward, and best of all, it’s highly consistent. After writing your first few commands, the style and syntax will be stuck in your head and will leave you wanting to write more.
The jQuery Alias
Including jQuery in your page gives you access to a single magical function called (strangely enough) jQuery. Just one function? It’s through this one function that jQuery exposes hundreds of powerful tools to help add another dimension to your web pages.
Because a single function acts as a gateway to the entire jQuery library, there’s little chance of the library function names conflicting with other libraries, or with your own JavaScript code. Otherwise, a situation like this could occur: let’s say jQuery defined a function called hide (which it has) and you also had a function called hide in your own code, one of the functions would be overwritten, leading to unanticipated events and errors.
We say that the jQuery library is contained in the jQuery namespace. Namespacing is an excellent approach for playing nicely with other code on a page, but if we’re going to use a lot of jQuery (and we are), it will quickly become annoying to have to type the full jQuery function name for every command we use. To combat this issue, jQuery provides a shorter alias for accessing the library. Simply, it’s $.
The dollar sign is a short, valid, and cool-looking JavaScript variable name. It might seem a bit lazy (after all, you’re only saving five keystrokes by using the alias), but a full page of jQuery will contain scores of library calls, and using the alias will make the code much more readable and maintainable.
Important: Using Multiple Libraries
The main reason you might want to use the full jQuery call rather than the alias is when you have multiple JavaScript libraries on