The Future of jQuery - What To Look Forward To In Late 2010 & Beyond

The Future of jQuery - What To Look Forward To In Late 2010 & Beyond
addyosmani.com

In brief:

Presenter - Addy Osmani

1) jQuery Mobile

2) jQuery 1.4.3

3) Future of jQuery

Details:

1) jQuery Mobile: Create customized app that will work on almost all smartphones. Less work for all developers, short learning curve. Write once, work everywhere - same idea that prompted Resig to design jQuery. Write webapps that aren't tied down to particular devices. Improved touch-optimized UI/layout - almost native widgets. Current solution everyone uses is self-written custom CSS/png files to make their apps look like iOS widgets. Having jQuery team behind such a UI will ensure your application will always look good on all devices. Team will ensure support for international platforms, not just US-centric. jQuery Mobile will be rolled into jQuery Core - ONE file for use on desktop AND mobile devices (only 1kb increase in size). Expected release date: Oct 16, 2010 at jQuery Conference in Boston.

2) jQuery 1.4.3: Will include jQuery Mobile, expected released Oct 16. Lots of bug fixes. Improved .css() performance across all browsers. Feature allowing plugins to delay execution of the DOM ready event. Better support for easing in shorthand effects (hide, show etc.). Data can be bound to Flash objects, presenter unsure how useful this feature will be. Improved type Support, fixes to noConflict.

3a) Future of jQuery I: Lots of community improvement ideas - jQuery team will make their core roadmap more concrete and publicly available in the future. More information will be available for those who wish to contribute with the bug fixing and performance optimization efforts. If you are the JS/jQuery developer with a few years of experience, please try to help with the bug fixing and other project tasks. Even reviewing others' code and writing test will be appreciated by the team. Voting and commenting on what bugs will take priority are also in pipeline.

3b) Future of jQuery II: Modular version of jQuery - people who are used to jQuery UI are aware that it is possible to break down a library into chunks. Modular jQuery would be slightly different - you may be able to load the core of jQuery first and then load the rest of the code later on, as you need. If you want to use animate features and don't require other jQuery features, you may be able to load the base jQuery, then animation code, then if another plugin on same page needs other part of jQuery, the plugin can use it's own set of jQuery features. It would be a complex feature to create but would help page-load times. Still an idea in the pipeline at this time. Will decrease the amount of jQuery core code you need to load in a page.

My personal thoughts:

Can't wait for the jQuery Mobile. I am working on the perfect webapp to utilize jQuery Mobile thoroughly. Love the single .js file, even if it was 20-30kb larger, I wouldn't care personally - hopefully it won't have 200kb of assorted CSS/png files like the jQuery UI. Improved speed in 1.4.3 sounds cool too.

So, really looking forward to the possibilities the new jQuery will bring.