Thursday, 2 October 2008

Microsoft Decides On Shipping JQuery JavaScript Library With Visual Studio

Microsoft is softening its attitude on shipping open-source code with Windows with a decision to distribute the handy jQuery JavaScript library with Visual Studio.

jQuery makes it easier to use JavaScript for writing Web pages that provide interactivity. It helps to smooth over the differences between different browser versions, so the same code has a prayer of working on both IE, Firefox, and Safari. Microsoft's interest in jQuery probably isn't the cross-browser aspect, but instead its ability to easily implement special effects and Ajax communications.

Microsoft's Scott Guthrie, corporate vice president in the company's developer division, noted Microsoft's intentions to support the open source technology. "I'm excited today to announce that Microsoft will be shipping jQuery with Visual Studio going forward," Guthrie said. "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.”

In addition, Microsoft said that it would contribute tests, bug fixes, and patches to the JQuery open-source project and that later this year it would extend product support to JQuery.

Separately, cell-phone giant Nokia has said it's also looking at using jQuery to build applications for its WebKit-based Web Run-Time. jQuery will be distributed with Nokia phones that ship with the Run-Time, a stripped down browser-rendering engine. John Resig, of the jQuery development team, said Nokia also was taking steps to adopt jQuery as part of its official application platform.