Learning jQuery

Last week I attended The Ajax Experience conference in Boston (no, I didn't go to a Red Sox game), sponsored by the folks at ajaxian.com The schedule was packed with outstanding presentations. But the highlight of my trip was jQueryCamp07, which was held at Harvard University on Saturday.

Throughout the week I had quite a few opportunities to talk with John Resig, the creator and lead developer of jQuery. But, like the social clod that I am, I forgot to do the one thing that I had set out to do: Thank John Resig, in person, for the jQuery JavaScript Library. It was only after I returned home on Sunday that I realized my oversight. So, at the risk of sounding sappy, I figure I ought to write in a public forum what I had meant to say face to face.

Thanks, John, for creating an elegant, powerful tool that has saved me and thousands of others countless hours of frustration. jQuery has not only saved businesses enormous amounts of time and money by enabling web developers to write less code more quickly than we ever could have imagined, but it has also sparked a nascent industry of its own.

Thanks for jQueryCamp07, too. I really appreciate all the work you put into organizing the conference, securing a location, ordering the food, having the t-shirts printed — doing just about everything. It was great to meet people from the jQuery discussion list for the first time and hear about all the cool things they're doing with the library. I think it's safe to say that with 80+ people in attendance the conference was a huge success — especially considering how little (or no) advertising went into it.

Sorry if this post seems a little over the top, but the sentiments are genuine. It's remarkable that people like John are pouring themselves into these amazing tools, and then giving them away. Free. So others can profit. Still, I bet he wouldn't turn down a donation.