

If you configure the various options and download the vanilla.js file, you will find that it is completely empty.

Plugins for datepickers and other common tools began to depend on it.Įspecially if you just wanted to do one small thing without having to include a bulky library. Users on question and answer websites began recommending it for the simplest of operations. Many tutorials presumed that you were already using the library. However, jQuery’s popularity began to “take over” and soon enough, it started to become difficult to find a JavaScript solution that didn’t involve using it. Furthermore, the library helped to paper over many of the cross browser issues that existed back when Internet Explorer was still widely used.īasically, I like the library, and in no way am I “hating” on it. It can also save you a lot of time and effort. jQuery is an excellent library that can help you to simplify certain operations. JQuery in particular, is a perfect example. It wasn’t long before the JavaScript “ecosystem” became flooded with popular plugins and tools that relied on external libraries. The term “Vanilla JavaScript” became popular because of the prevalence of external JavaScript libraries such as jQuery and MooTools.Īs the usage of external libraries and plugins increased, the line between regular JavaScript and jQuery became “blurred”.īeginner developers often didn’t even know the difference between the two. Why did the term “Vanilla JavaScript” become popular? The definition of the word “vanilla” describes it as something that has “no special or extra features”. There shouldn’t be any need to download or include an external library for it to work. It means using the inbuilt methods and objects without any additional libraries or frameworks.Īs a result, “Vanilla JavaScript” code should work straight out of the box. “Vanilla JavaScript” is a term that developers use to describe regular JavaScript.
