I noticed most questions related to client-side script on SO are jQuery related and that got me thinking. I’m wondering what the ease of these libraries is doing to actual KNOWLEDGE of JavaScript and the DOM.
So much is done for you that my fear is there is a growing number of web developers that actually know very little about JavaScript besides how to include the jQuery library and use the plug-ins they download. It’s the “fast food” approach to software development and, based on nothing more than anecdotal evidence, I think a lot of web “developers” would be in the dark when it comes to client script if they were suddenly unable to use the jQuery library.
My question: are these libraries helping or hurting REAL knowledge of client-side scripting?
In my opinion jQuery is to DOM as the .NET Framework is to the Win32 API, or GTK+ is to X11 programming. It’s another layer on top of the “raw” API. It makes things a lot easier to work with, at the “cost” of abstracting the lower level details. Usually this is OK, but sometimes these details are important. It can help at times to be familiar with the underlying API (I think moreso in the jQuery/DOM case than .NET/Win32), but I wouldn’t worry overmuch if someone has to hit a reference site or two before coding a pure DOM solution.
It’s also important to recognize the difference between “JavaScript” and “the DOM”. The DOM is not part of the JavaScript language; it is merely an API exposed by to the JavaScript engines in the major browsers. So while using jQuery might hinder one’s knowledge of the DOM, it won’t hurt their knowledge of the JavaScript language itself.