Question

In terms of execution time and resources employed, is it more convenient to load as much stuff as possible with jQuery.ready() or the bare essentials?

Answer 1

just use it as trigger for you init functions… Don’t put all your code in it:

don’t do:

$(function(){
  var someFunction = function(){
   $("a").click(function(event){
     event.preventDefault();
   });
  };
  someFunction();
});

do:

var someFunction = function(){
   $("a").click(function(event){
     event.preventDefault();
   });
};
$(function(){
  someFunction();
});

its more readable, and it simply makes no sense to put all your code in the ready function.

ps:

$(function(){}) ===
$(document).ready()