Jquery – do more with less. The talk is a scenario that helps a developer be more efficient.

Unlike Lasse Koskela, Bear Bibeault doesn’t speak like he writes  A great presentation though.  Bear is dynamic in a different way on a stage than when he’s in writing or even in person outside a formal presentation. Almost like the stage gets him in teaching mode with a large emphasis on keeping people engaged and entertained. And fast moving without being overwhelming.  The content almost gets snuck in without you noticing you are learning, which is awesome!

Covered good practices like unobtrusive JavaScript. Noted similarity to HTML 5 where tags are becoming more document centric.

I really like how all the AJAX code malls to one line of jQuery. And it’s not a contrived example either.  [when i train people on jQuery at work, I show how common idioms we use can be expressed in one line as well]  Noted the JQuery code doesn’t require a global variable to keep track of the request.

Things I learned that I didn’t already know

• JQuery css 3 style selectors work even if you are using a browser that doesn’t properly support then.
• You can bind event handlers to elements that don’t exist yet (I’ve used this but never really though about what was going on)
• How to use Ajax functions beyond the bare minimum, for example specifying the target on the page for the response
• There is a validation plugin where you can configure your own rules

Other important points that jquery users might not realize

• Document ready handler executes before window.unload because it doesn’t wait for images to load.   It also lets you run multiple initialization functions in the order defined.

I also liked seeing jquery functions with a dozen lines to see how to do it well and in a readable manner. It requires more thinking in chaining than I’m used to, a good skill to get better at.

I didn’t write about the jQuery syntax parts. For that see the query website (docs.query.com) or read Bear’s book jquery in Action.