Think twice when upgrading to jQuery 2.x

jQuery 2.0 was released earlier this year. This new version touts for its reduced size (again) and even smaller custom builds (again).

But as the version number suggested, it is a big leap from the older versions of jQuery. For most of us developers, the warning of "No more support for IE 6/7/8" shouts in our ears, for we know many of our users are still using Windows XP, which means no Direct2D for hardware acceleration, which means NO Internet Explorer 9.

And many organizations do feel it premature to abandon IE8 even though they could. If you happen to work in an organization like government agencies, you will understand their many IT concerns. An upgrade will be pushed out only when all (mostly security )concerns are addressed.

Anyway, the jQuery team cannot wait any longer for us. Many old code to handle node selection, DOM manipulation, event handling and Ajax has been removed. (That explains the 11% reduced size of jQuery 2.0)

If you are unlucky programmers like me, stick to the older version is the only option. If you are using Visual Studio, instead of using NuGet GUI to automatically install the latest jQuery, turn to our Package Manager Console and manually type in the version we need:

PM> Install-Package jQuery -Version 1.10.2

At least there is no compelling to drive us to version 2 at this moment.