jQuery "best practices", oxymoron for several reasons sadly

To speak candidly, the entire jQuery library has a HIGHLY inconsistent API, and virtually no coding standards. It's basically a subset of JavaScript, a new language if you will, which is probably the most confusing part for normal javascript developers. In my opinion, use normal JavaScript where possible to save on memory consumption.

Or, better yet, use a professional tool like YUI. If you already come from a javascript background, you will appreciate it much more than jQuery because it doesn't have n00b wrappers around everything. In tools like YUI, you interact directly with the native DOM to do things, instead of a super-jQuery object that tries to do everything.

I'll get voted down for saying the truth. Don't get me wrong, jQuery is cool if you wanna throw something flashy up quick, but if you're going to build a larger app you're going to need a more refined tool (especially since jQuery leaks memory like no other once you start chaining too much things).

jQuery does have one of the lowest learning curves, and you won't outgrow it for awhile, but when you do it will be highly apparent and tedious to merge to something else.

• over 60 years programming experience
• someone clean this up and community wiki please