To Learn (Or Not Learn) JQuery

Nerval's Lobster writes: jQuery isn't without its controversies, and some developers distrust its use in larger projects because (some say) it ultimately leads to breakage-prone code that's harder to maintain. But given its prevalence, jQuery is probably essential to know, but what are the most important elements to learn in order to become adept-enough at it? Chaining commands, understanding when the document is finished loading (and how to write code that safely accesses elements only after said loading), and learning CSS selectors are all key. The harder part is picking up jQuery's quirks and tricks, of which there are many... but is it worth studying to the point where you know every possible eccentricity?

Comments

Obligatory post in a jQuery topic ...

[Misagon]

Anyone who is considering learning jQuery should also check out Vanilla JS.

Vanilla JS is a fast, lightweight, cross-platform framework for building incredible, powerful JavaScript applications.

Vanilla JS

[Ark42]

http://vanilla-js.com/ is probably much more worth learning and using. The *ONLY* reason to be using jQuery is for IE8 support, but I've long since required IE9+ for all freelance work I do, and do everything in CSS and Vanilla JS now.