jQuery 4

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

IE11 and Legacy Browser Support

  • Many are surprised jQuery 4 still officially supports IE11, with deprecation deferred to jQuery 5 to avoid further delay and respect semver.
  • Defenders note substantial IE11 use in locked‑down corporate/government environments, intranets, LTSC/IoT Windows, and school labs; for these users, jQuery’s cross‑browser abstractions remain valuable.
  • Critics argue public stats show almost no real‑world IE traffic and far more users on dropped iOS/Safari versions; they see continued IE support as enabling bad IT practices.
  • Several point out a practical nuance: “support” mainly means jQuery’s own test matrix; old iOS/Safari may still work, but are no longer tested.
  • Skeptics question whether IE‑bound legacy apps will ever upgrade to jQuery 4 anyway.

Relevance of jQuery in 2026

  • Many nostalgic comments: jQuery is credited with making early web dev enjoyable and launching careers; still seen as “peak JavaScript” by some.
  • Current uses cited: small enhancements on server-rendered sites, hobby and small‑business sites, custom widgets and games, browser extensions, and legacy apps (often due to dependencies like DataTables).
  • Some say there’s little reason for newcomers to adopt jQuery now: modern DOM APIs, CSS, and Fetch cover almost everything; libraries like HTMX, Alpine, etc., or just vanilla JS are preferred.
  • Others stress productivity: terse, chainable syntax ($, show(), quick AJAX, consistent events) vs more verbose stdlib; several show how they re‑implement a minimal $ helper in a few lines.

Size, “Bloat,” and Alternatives

  • jQuery 4 is 27 kB gzipped; some label this “bloated” compared to micro‑frameworks like Preact (5 kB).
  • Counterpoint: jQuery does significantly more, especially for older browsers; and real SPA stacks typically bring 100–200 kB of ecosystem anyway.
  • One embedded example: migrating from jQuery + jQuery UI to Preact shrank a constrained firmware UI bundle enough to meet tight size limits.

jQuery vs React and Modern Frontends

  • Large subthread compares jQuery with React and other frameworks:
    • React fans say it made complex interactive UIs manageable versus “spaghetti jQuery.”
    • Critics call React over‑engineered for many sites, hard to reason about (hooks, lifecycle, global state), and overused where simple templates would suffice.
  • Several note that well‑structured jQuery or “reactive jQuery” patterns can be maintainable, especially in legacy codebases where introducing a full framework is impractical.
  • HTMX, Backbone, Mithril, Vue, Svelte, Elm, and others appear as options depending on project scale and philosophy.

Breaking Changes and Long-Term Stability

  • Some are uneasy that jQuery 4 removes APIs like jQuery.isArray instead of aliasing to native functions, arguing an old, ubiquitous library should minimize breakage for legacy code.
  • Others respond that projects not willing to update code can simply remain on 3.x; jQuery’s job is also to modernize and clean up, not freeze forever.
  • Security scanning and client demands are cited as primary reasons teams are forced to upgrade jQuery versions on old projects.