jQuery has been extremely popular among web developers, used widely by everyone from beginners to advanced users.
In recent years, thanks to the evolution of native JavaScript APIs, it has become possible to handle many processes more simply and efficiently than with jQuery.
For this reason, in new projects, there is a growing tendency to choose modern frameworks or native JavaScript instead of jQuery.
Let’s consider what will happen to jQuery in the future.
What is jQuery?
jQuery is a JavaScript library released in 2006. Its purpose is to make JavaScript easier to use and improve cross-browser compatibility. jQuery can manipulate HTML document elements, add animations, and perform asynchronous communication using Ajax.
Features of jQuery
- Simple selectors: You can easily select HTML elements using CSS selectors.
- DOM manipulation: You can easily add, remove, and modify attributes of HTML elements.
- Event handling: You can easily handle events such as clicks, hovers, and keyboard input.
- Animation: You can easily implement animations such as showing/hiding elements or sliding effects.
- Ajax support: Supports asynchronous communication, allowing data exchange with the server without reloading the webpage.
- Cross-browser compatibility: Provides consistent behavior across major browsers and absorbs differences between them.
What will happen to jQuery in the future?
As of 2021, jQuery was still widely used, but in recent years native JavaScript APIs have evolved significantly, and the popularity of modern frameworks (such as React, Vue.js, and Angular) has been rising. Because of this, we can say that jQuery’s position has been changing.
Why jQuery continues to be used
- Existing projects: Many websites and applications are built on jQuery, so in these existing projects, jQuery is still used.
- Browser compatibility: jQuery excels at handling older browsers, and can operate across a wider range than modern JavaScript APIs.
- Simple DOM manipulation: jQuery provides simple and intuitive DOM manipulation, making it useful for small projects or rapid prototyping.
Reasons for the decline in jQuery’s popularity
- Rise of modern frameworks: Frameworks such as React, Vue.js, and Angular offer advanced features like component-based architecture and virtual DOM, enabling more efficient development.
- Evolution of native JavaScript: Since ES6, features such as modules, arrow functions, and asynchronous processing have been introduced, making it easy to achieve many functions natively that jQuery once provided.
- Performance: Although lightweight, jQuery still has more overhead than native JavaScript, which may result in lower performance.
However, jQuery is still useful in appropriate scenarios, and may continue to be used for maintaining older projects and supporting legacy systems. Additionally, many jQuery-based plugins and libraries still exist, and jQuery may remain necessary when using these.
Conclusion
jQuery may gradually lose influence in the future, but it will likely continue to be used in specific scenarios and existing projects.
It is important to understand modern JavaScript development trends and choose the right tools for the job.
※This is my personal opinion. Please use or reference it at your own responsibility.
