Jquery Mobile

Chapter 1

jQuery mobile and other libraries

Before getting involved and learning about jQuery Mobile, a legitimate question
to ask would concern the comparison with other more or less established and used
JavaScript libraries, which claim to have the same goals.
For example, how good is jQuery Mobile compared to any of the following?
•

jQTouch

•

Sencha Touch

•

iUI

•iWebKit

Let's find out!

jQTouch

While jQuery Mobile is a relatively recent entry in the mobile world, jQTouch dates
back to 2009, when David Kaneda created an open source jQuery plugin for mobile
development on the iPhone.
Due to its close relationship (and dependency) with jQuery, the plugin files
themselves are quite heavy.
Although aware of the problem, jQTouch developersdecided not to remove the
dependency from the jQuery core.
Some people have said they'd like to see the jQuery dependency removed from
jQTouch to decrease the download size. The reasoning is that jQuery has a lot of
code dedicated to legacy desktop browsers (that is, older, discontinued versions),
and is therefore dead-weight on mobile devices.

Who is it for?

The jQTouch development teamhas decided to keep the project strictly focused on
WebKit-enabled devices (that is, iPhone, iPod Touch, Palm WebOS, and Android),
all of which have a relatively small screen. It provides native animations, automatic
navigation, and a customizable theming system for WebKit browsers.
According to their blog, we understand that, even though jQTouch runs fine on
larger-screen devices, it's notits intended use, and therefore the UI will not take
advantage of the additional space.

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What is jQuery Mobile?

Applications developed with jQTouch will certainly run fine on iPads and other
tablet devices, but we aren't going to automatically convert to a more tablet-friendly
UI that takes advantage of the additional real estate.
Because of the type of plugin and its overallstructure, jQTouch is a package geared
primarily towards web designers and novice web-application developers. jQTouch
developers themselves recommend more expert software programmers to use their
other standalone project Sencha Touch.

How does it look?

A sample image that shows jQTouch's look and feel is shown in the following
screenshot representing the user interface of the clock demo. Itcan be found at
the jQTouch website (http://jqtouch.com).
As it's easily noticeable, jQTouch shows some kind of consistency with other UI
that resemble a native-like iPhone application.

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Chapter 1

What should I remember?

A few key things to remember about jQTouch are:
•

It is easy to set up.

•

Native WebKit animations. But only WebKit (no support for otherplatforms.)

•

Theming system.

•

Small screen devices only.

Sencha Touch

Shortly after the release of his jQTouch, David Kaneda decided to release a
completely different package, with more or less the same goals, but not dependent
on jQuery anymore.
Sencha Touch was born, and it is still seen as an alternative to jQTouch when
speaking of tablets and other devices of the same kind.The interesting thing about
this is the complete separation of the two projects; one (jQTouch) is a plugin for
jQuery, and depends on the popular library, while the other (Sencha Touch) is a
framework and provides a number of functionalities the former could not develop
(that is, API).
Being developed as a standalone framework, Sencha Touch is also more lightweight
than its sister project,JQTouch, which needs the whole jQuery framework to work
correctly.

Who is it for?

Even being an alternative for jQTouch, Sencha Touch targets the same set of devices,
but adds support for tablets:
If you are in need of a JavaScript library that magically updates your UI for
everything from small screens, to tablets, to desktops, check out Sencha Touch.
Sencha Touch offers a pure...