How can I convert normal javascript code to jQuery
<p>People are recommending me that I should convert this code to jquery, but how and where, are there any tools or how do you do that and why XMLHttpRequest is not good with jQuery??</p>

<p>I have this code:</p>

<pre><code>function showVal(str) {
  if (str == "") {
    document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML = "* Please type in School Name.";
    return;
  }

  if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {// code for IE7+, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari
    xmlhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
  } else {// code for IE6, IE5
    xmlhttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
  }

  xmlhttp.onreadystatechange = function () {
    if (xmlhttp.readyState == 4) {
      if (xmlhttp.status == 200) { // break this into 2 statements so you can handle HTTP errors
        document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML = xmlhttp.responseText;
      } else {
        document.getElementById("txtHint").innerHTML = "AJAX Error (HTTP "+xmlhttp.status+")";
      }
    }
  }; // functions declared in this way should be followed by a semi colon, since the function declaration is actually a statement.

  // encodeURIComponent() does all the escaping work for you - it is roughly analogous to PHP's urlencode()

  // xmlhttp.open("GET","ajaxFuncs2.php?q="+encodeURIComponent(str),true);
  xmlhttp.open("GET","ajaxFuncs2.php?q="+encodeURIComponent(str),true);

  xmlhttp.send();
}
</code></pre>
