Html5 not ready yet?

HTML & CSS
1

Hi,

I’m new to website development and I wonder, is it really true that HTML 5 is not yet ready for the task

should I learn JQuery instead ? Is JQuery more stable ? Does it do the job ?

Thank you.

2

jQuery and HTML5 are completely different things. HTML5 is not fully ratified and is highly likely to change before it is completely signed off. This means that different browsers offer different support, what works in Chrome may not work in IE9 etc.

Learn xHTML and jQuery to start with and add the supported HTML5/CSS3 features that compliment the design in supported browsers (In that order too).

3

thank you very much ! I deduce that xhtml and jquery go hands in hands ?

4

You deduce incorrectly as they are different objects with different purposes. XHTML relates closer to HTML5 or HTML, as they are the vessel for providing information to a client. jQuery is a javascript package which allows you to provide that information in a more pleasing manner, though it is often overly used and the same effects can be done with straight HTML and CSS. The benefit of using jQuery over straight javascript is it handles the browser inconsistencies automatically, but there is a cost in terms over overhead and page load times.

5

I started studying JavaScript about three months ago and I haven’t even considered learning jQuery yet. I figure I’ll have a better understanding of the langauge if I study its core functionality before I start using libraries.

6

You need at least an intermediate level JavaScript knowledge to be able to use jQuery properly.

Those who try to use jQuery without that level of JavaScript knowledge will generally use 10 lines of jQuery calls to do what can be done in two lines of javaScript without jQuery.

jQuery is just a library of JavaScript functions and so you really need to understand JavaScript to know when to and when not to use those functions.

7

Examples of newbies using 10 lines of jQuery calls instead of 2 lines of pure javascript please? links will be fine.

8

I’ll post a joke instead:
http://www.doxdesk.com/updates/2009.html#u20091116-jquery

however I’ll note that recently I was debugging some jQuery, which I still don’t know well, and I had gotten an input element. I thought, "hey I’ll just
if (input.checked) {
//do stuff;
}
"
but apparently since I had gotten my element via $(), it was now a jQuery object, and so regular Javascript didn’t work on it anymore. I had to really do the if(input.is:checked) bit. Felt weird. Also input.checked in Javascript has pretty much remained stable (it’s true or it’s false). jQuery used to give you true or false for input.attr(checked) but later on they changed it and decided it would be better to give back either checked or undefined.

The .each() function looked good, until I saw that if you have a lot of elements, it’s still quicker to just use a regular for loop instead.

9