Advantages of using pure JavaScript over JQuery
<p>What are the advantages of using Javascript-only versus using JQuery-only?</p>

<p>I have limited experience with JavaScript and JQuery coding. I've added bits and snippets of each to HTML pages but I've mostly coded server-side stuff in other languages. I've noticed that while you can theoretically do the same things using either of the two approaches (and of course you can even mix 'em up in the same project) there seems to be a tendency to always start using JQuery from the very beginning no-matter what the project demands are. </p>

<p>So I'm simply wondering, are there any punctual benefits to not use JQuery-only but instead to just use plain old JavaScript?</p>

<p>I know this looks like a non-question because it can be said about it that "there's no definite answer" or "it can be debated for ever", but I'm actually hoping for punctual answers such as "You can do this in one approach and you cannot do it with the other".</p>

<p>==EDIT==</p>

<p>As per scrwtp's comment, I'm not referring just to the DOM Handling part. My question is rather: JQuery is a library. For Javascript. What I find strange about this library as opposed to other libraries for other languages is that in JQyery's case it seems to be designed to be able to use it exclusively and not need to touch Javascript directly. This is as opposed to let's say Hibernate and SQL, where even though the library (or rather framework in this case, but I think the analogy still applies) takes the handle on A LOT of aspects, you still get to use SQL when using it, at least for some fringe cases. However in JQuery &amp; Javascript case, you could do anything you do with Javascript using only JQuery (or at least that's how it seems to me).</p>

<p>==EDIT 2==</p>

<p>As per Stargazer712's comment: yes, I agree with you, the question here is, as you put it "just a matter of how you will be using JavaScript". That's what I was actually thriving to ask, but I've made some bad formulations. Here's another analogy: <a href="http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/reference/expressions.html">Spring Expression Language</a>. It's a Java library. You can't use it without Java, it's based on Java, and down through it all you still get to use Java. But in practice what you can do is add this library to a Java project, and then write all your code using Spring EL's expression language which effectively makes your code not resemble Java at all, and it's even paradigm shifting (for example you no longer have strong type enforcement when using this). While I do understand that JQuery is just a JS library, to me it seems that in practice it has the same effect as Spring EL has with Java, i.e you can only use it's APIs through out a project and avoid JavaScript's APIs. And I was wondering if that's a good thing to do, what might be the pitfalls etc. </p>

<p>(and yes, after reading everyone's answers I do understand that :</p>

<p>a. my question is somewhat non-sensical up to a point</p>

<p>b. even if the question were completly accurate, the answer to it would be pretty much "no you can't just use JQuery-only all the time)</p>
