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Where can I learn jQuery? Is it worth it?

Asked 2008-08-26T01:58:23.093
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I've had a lot of good experiences learning about web development on w3schools.com. It's hit or miss, I know, but the PHP and CSS sections specifically have proven very useful for reference.

Anyway, I was wondering if there was a similar site for jQuery. I'm interested in learning, but I need it to be online/searchable, so I can refer back to it easily when I need the information in the future.

Also, as a brief aside, is jQuery worth learning? Or should I look at different JavaScript libraries? I know Jeff uses jQuery on Stack Overflow and it seems to be working well.

Thanks!

Edit: jQuery's website has a pretty big list of tutorials, and a seemingly comprehensive documentation page. I haven't had time to go through it all yet, has anyone else had experience with it?

Edit 2: It seems Google is now hosting the jQuery libraries. That should give jQuery a pretty big advantage in terms of publicity.

Also, if everyone uses a single unified aQuery library hosted at the same place, it should get cached for most Internet users early on and therefore not impact the download footprint of your site should you decide to use it.

2 Months Later...

Edit 3: I started using jQuery on a project at work recently and it is great to work with! Just wanted to let everyone know that I have concluded it is ABSOLUTELY worth it to learn and use jQuery.

Also, I learned almost entirely from the Official jQuery documentation and javascript jquery review

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2 Answers

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There are a number of resources to learn jQuery (which is completely worth it IMHO). Start here http://docs.jquery.com/Main_Page to read the jQuery documentation. This is a great site for seeing visually what it has to offer: http://visualjquery.com/1.1.2.html. Manning publications also has a great book which is highly recommended called jQuery in Action. As far as JavaScript libraries are concerned, this one and Prototype are probably the most popular if you're looking to compare jQuery to something else.

answered 2008-08-26T02:07:50.780
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Jquery.com is well organized and has many great examples. You don't need to buy a book. I found it easy to pickup on the fly by just referencing website's documentation. If you're someone who learns best by doing, I'd suggest this approach.

And yes, it's absolutely worth learning. It'll save you a lot of time and you'll actually look forward to doing JavaScript work!

answered 2009-03-02T13:50:51.117

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