5 Reasons Why I’m Switching To jQuery From Prototype

This has probably been written up a thousand times, but here are my reasons for switching to jQuery from Prototype.

1. Speed. You can Google it if you’d like, but it’s very clear that jQuery, and several other libraries, blow Prototype away on speed.
2. DOM Traversing.  I’m sorry, but it’s downright sexy when I can do this:
   $('ul.grid li:nth-child(3n)').addClass('end');
3. Community. The jQuery community is bursting at the seams with activity.  I’m hard pressed to go a day without reading about some new jQuery plugin.  The community is active and growing, and I’d be foolish not to pay attention to that.
4. Active Development. The lastest jQuery version, 1.3.2 was released on Feb 20, 2009.  The latest Prototype release, 1.6.0.3 was released Sep 29, 2008.
5. Ajax. Check it.  If I’m going to Ajax the crap out of your site, I might want to get a bit picky with what I actually load up.  Thanks to Ajax/load in jQuery, I can target a div to return via Ajax: $("#links").load("/futon #worlds_greatest_list li");

I’ll be honest.  I still prefer Prototype syntax.  I also believe that Prototype better handles arrays, but thanks to jQuery Protify that is kind of a moot point.  As a Front-End Developer/Designer Person Worker it’s my job to stay current and relevant and jQuery is both of those things.  Going forward I’ll be pulling in jQuery instead of Prototype, but I won’t be abandoning ship on personal projects just yet.  I still hold out hope for Prototype/Scriptaculous 2.0.