I have been doing alot of javascript programming in the past few years and had to do many tasks over and over again.

Since last year javascript libraries have been almost exploding, due to the huge ajax hype. Among those are Prototype, jQuery, MooTools, ext, cssQuery, dojo and alot of other larger frameworks.

When I evaluate libraries, I make sure that what I include mostly consists of things I will actual use within a project. Bloated libraries are out of the question for me. Also important is the way a library integrates into my workflow and other server side enviroments I use. The library must be unobstrusive and easy to extend.

While evaluating options for my php framework, JQuery became the library of my choice.
“jQuery is a fast, concise, JavaScript Library that simplifies how you
traverse HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and add
Ajax interactions to your web pages.”

It has a lighweight footprint of around 19kb(compressed), is CSS3
compliant and provides cross browser functionality (IE, Firefox,
Safari, Opera). The jQuery community is really active and provides a
huge amount of additonal plugins that extend its functionality. jQuery
allowed me to move many of my snippets into small plugins, that I can
load where ever I need them. I will share some of those in the future
and also write up some tutorials about things I have created with
jQuery in the past months.

jQuery is up to version 1.1.2 and version 1.1.3 is just around the corner.

Check it out