Question

I’m using a WordPress theme that only has about 10 lines of jQuery, yet it’s using the 90kb jQuery file. I want to change this jQuery code to Javascript, but I’m not very good at Javascript:

jQuery('body #main-tabbed-area a, body .wp-pagenavi a, body .pagination a').live("click", function () {
  $href = jQuery(this).attr('href');
  $contentArea.fadeTo('fast', 0.2).load($href + ' #main-area', function () {
    $contentArea.fadeTo('fast', 1);
  });
  return false;
});


var $tabbed_area = jQuery('div#tabbed');
if ($tabbed_area.length) {
  $tabbed_area.tabs({
    fx: {
      opacity: 'toggle'
    }
  });
};

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Personally I’d persist with jQuery. Although there is “only about 10 lines jQuery” what it is doing is quite substantial. By the time you have recreated a lot of what jQuery is providing you here you will have a fairly decent slab of javaScript to debug and maintain. That is the beauty of jQuery, to quote their tag line “write less, do more” Remember with jQuery you are eliminating a lot of annoying cross browser quirks.

Edit: See tbranyen’s answer for a practical example of why jQuery is worth it

Use a CDN version of jQuery, like Google’s and you will be using jQuery that your uses may already have cached and therefore does not have to be downloaded again. jQuery UI can also be served in the same way. See this article: http://encosia.com/2008/12/10/3-reasons-why-you-should-let-google-host-jquery-for-you/

EDIT

Reading your question further “I’m not very good at javaScript” is all the more reason to stick with jQuery. Let it do all the heaving lifting for you. HOWEVER don’t use jQuery as an excuse not to learn more about javaScript, the more you learn about javaScript the more you will be able to get out of jQuery.