Introducing .NET 4.0: with Visual Studio 2010

12.2. jQuery Overview

jQuery is a lightweight (18KB at time of writing) JavaScript library that was first released in 2006 by John Resig. jQuery provides the following:

• Numerous ways to select, traverse, and manipulate elements on the page

• "Chainability" of functions, which allows the results of one function to be fed into another

• Functionality to separate code from design

• Utilities for performing common tasks such as Ajax calls and browser capability checks

• Special effects, such as fades and glides, and easy manipulation of CSS

• Easy-to-extend plug-ins

Figure 12-1 shows a high-level view of the jQuery architecture. Antonio Lupetti has produced a much more detailed diagram that I would encourage you to take a look at here: wwww.box.net/shared/as4xkezd6a ...