Jquery

[hallsofvallhalla]

I am sorry guys but I have tried to use Jquery and the fact of the matter is nothing comes up where I even need it. It seems to be more geared towards web design and not actually raw coding. Especially building a game. And let me just throw in gamequery is a heap. Far harder to use than many other libraries and lacking on features.

Do not get me wrong Jquery is nice and I will use it for the design of my site for easy tagging and div calling but when it comes to hard core Javascript design like game algorithms and feature design you are going to be writing raw JS which is easy enough.

[Xaleph]

Uhm, maybe it lacks default functionality ( i too hate jquery UI) but the whole idea behind jquery is it`s flexibility. You can very easily extend the jquery core to do whatever you want. If you need some algoritmic functions inside of it, you can create a plugin which handles that.

It`s not that hard, and that way, you can use it on all elements. Not just program it for 1 specific thingie.

[Loopy]

Jquery is the OMGTHISISAWESOMESAUSE bomb of my life right now, I use it on every project I can for the primary objective of increasing usability... UI enhancements/upgrades, easy AJAX, etc., my usage of it is more enhancement than anything, allowing users to have easier access to more data, and it is presented a lot nicer too. It hasn't replaced my 'hard core Javascript', but it has certainly complemented it.

I think you have the right idea though, I wouldn't consider it a 'hard core Javascript' replacement by any means, but a tool that can help you refine your presentation of what you already develop in JS/PHP/MySQL.

[Jackolantern]

jQuery was never meant to be a full replacement to raw Javascript. It is just supposed to augment it. You have to admit that it is a lot easier to select every other row in a table with jQuery than with raw JS! But without also using raw JS, it makes things a lot more complicated. Sadly, that is how a lot of people are approaching jQuery today: as a full replacement for having to learn raw JS, and then they go and make tutorials for using it and don't have any raw JS in their code, and instead use tons of plugins for things they could have done with a few lines themselves. But if jQuery seems harder than raw JS, something is wrong, because for what jQuery does, pretty much every JS coder out there sees it as being 99% easier

GameQuery is really another story. It is aimed at more Flash-like games, not really PBBGs. Even for an animated map in a PBBG, GQ would be overkill. GQ is for games that have complex input systems (that use velocity), use timer-based animation, and have a state and animation machine. For those types of games, like shooters and side-scrollers, GameQuery could be a good choice.

[hallsofvallhalla]

i was working with the animation code. Did not like it and have found other libraries much better. But much of that is relative to the user.

Sure Jquery works for selecting tables in rows but I assumed it was much more than a selector. Especially for all the hype. I personally just haven't found that much use out of it but maybe the more I use it the more I will.

[Jackolantern]

Oh, it is much, much more than a selector, although that is a huge draw to it. It is also nice how it handles browser-compatibility and all of the boilerplate code to AJAX calls, and how it simplifies dynamically altering CSS properties.

Don't get me wrong. You will still end up writing a lot of raw JS. jQuery doesn't excuse you from raw JS at all, it just augments it.

[Xaleph]

OH and the selector is downloadable to use for your own javascript. They use the Sizzle engine for it, the original author of Jquery wrote it. You can implement the selector engine to use in your own raw JS if you like. But like Jack said, it`s much more then the selector thing. You can manipulate your entire DOM, something JS should do anyway. Now add to it: AJAX, Animations, Photosliders, Map generators, popups, modal boxes et cetera.

It`s all in there, really. It`s kinda cool, but if you dont like it, there`s a plethora of other libraries out there for you to use. I recently found a site which hosts all kinds of libraries: http://microjs.com/

[Jackolantern]

I would just stay away from Prototype, though. It actually modifies the DOM, which makes it incompatible with other libraries and can make your raw JS do unexpected things.

And yeah, the Sizzle Selector Engine is genius. But so is John Resig, the original author of Sizzle and jQuery! I have been following what he has been doing for some time now. Although it was bought by Zynga, his HTML5 game engine was freaking awesome looking.