weird function valChange trying to figure out what and why
<p>Ok, so I have this project I recently came on to, so Im still figuring things out and all else. But today I need to add some new stuff, and in doing so I came upon a road block that seems to be brought on by this custom little function someone extended jQuery with</p>

<pre><code>$.fn.extend({ valChange: function(v) { return this.val(v).change(); } });
</code></pre>

<p>the handful of places its used is like </p>

<pre><code>$("input#system_path", $form).valChange(data.system_path ? data.system_path : '');
</code></pre>

<p>now what ever this does in laymens terms is confusing me. However with what I am doing it appears that the elements I need to find the value of on document ready don't seem to have a value, despite actually having a value physically on the page, elements I am trying to find the value on similarly that don't get there values through this means work fine. So I am overall trying to wrap my mind around what the person that made this was thinking, and then if its something I can change to something else great so long as I can get my end game to work the way I want.</p>

<p>I just need someone to look at this and tell me what it is if it makes sense to them, and if it does, is there an alternative I can apply seeing as this is creating a road block?</p>
