Lately, as I’ve built out the latest WordPress theme I’m working on, I’ve thought, “Do I really need to use jQuery for this?” I’ve had a hard time answering it.
I finally read the blog post, jQuery’s Relevancy – There and Back Again, and it has helped me think about the question in a clearer context. Like most questions in web development, the answer is, “It depends.” Writing a few bits of functionality in vanilla JavaScript has helped me understand it better, and also see the need for jQuery in a lot of circumstances.
That said, for my latest WordPress theme, the answer is still, “Maybe.” I still have to explore some functionality that may be better accomplished with the help of jQuery. Anyway, I recommend giving the post a read because if anything, it will help you think about some of the misconceptions and advantages of jQuery.