posted 11 years ago
There have been lots of changes in jQuery between 1.3 and 1.8, including many performance gains, Ajax enhancements, a Sizzle selector engine update, new event delegation, and animation changes.
You can now extend many aspects of jQuery. Most plugins add functions that integrate into the processing of collections of DOM elements, such as graphical sliders, datepickers, etc. Other plugins extend jQuery directly to provide utility or function plugins, such as for cookie processing. In addition you can add custom selectors, animations for non-numeric values, Ajax transporters and converters, and custom events. The only limit is your imagination.