How to convince my fellow .NET developers that learning jQuery will be beneficial

Question

I have a few .NET developers who only want to use the MS AJAX Toolkit and think JavaScript (and any JS Library) is evil. I tried to explain that if you treat client-side development like a grown-up language you can build maintainable code ... but I assume that the classic ASP days have left a mark on these guys. Anyone have a suggestion to help convince this type of developer that learning jQuery will actually benefit them in the long run as the industry is trending back to "lets get close to the metal again" w/ MVC for example?

Answer 1

Tell them microsoft endorses jquery and that it's shipping with MVC

Answer 2

Point them to this article by Scott Guthrie. Quick quote from the article explains all:

I'm excited today to announce that Microsoft will be shipping jQuery with Visual Studio going forward. We will distribute the jQuery JavaScript library as-is, and will not be forking or changing the source from the main jQuery branch. The files will continue to use and ship under the existing jQuery MIT license.

Answer 3

If they don't realize that jQuery is the bee's knees - they're living under a rock - tell them about all of the people that are using jQuery (Google, Dell, MLB, Bank of America.....the rest of a good list is in the middle of the jQuery home page) - or just tell them that every time they go to their Netflix account they are using jQuery or if they visit the president's web site (which could backfire I guess.... ;)

Emphasize that learning a 'technology' that is becoming that ubiquitous can only help your career.

Answer 4

• Ask if they like server-round-trips. (To make them understand that client-side-stuff is necessary.)
• Ask if they want to write code that works in 3 different places at the same time? (To make them understand the need for a library that almost erases browser differences.)
• Show them a list of who's using jQuery.

If they fancy elegant code, they will get what you're saying. Otherwise I think they'll be really hard to convince.

Answer 5

Implement something that has value for your organisation/clients using jQuery to prove that it works well in your context - even better if it's something that would be difficult to implement, more complex or take longer in the MS AJAX Toolkit.

Developers often find practical examples of running code in a context that applies to them more persuasive than general endorsements or lists of who else is using it (every practical technology can come up with a good list of users).

And if your developers don't like JavaScript, perhaps you should ask them what they think the AJAX Toolkit is running on the client side. The AJAX Toolkit is a JavaScript library on the client side - just one that's designed to be easily integrated into ASP.NET.

Answer 6

Getting up to speed on the dominant tool in a given area is always a good idea. JQuery is the dominant JS library. For some anecdotal evidence, take a look at the tags here on StackOverflow:

• JQuery: 1809 items
• asp.net-ajax: 272 items
• ajaxtoolkit: 54 items

Answer 7

Tell them they can do more with less - and understanding jQuery/javascript will help them understand AJAX.NET even more. It's a big huge leaky abstraction in my books - since switching to jQuery it made web programming more fun and I could build way cooler apps.