Paul Krill
Editor at Large

Troubled jQuery mobile and UI projects seek new participants

news
Dec 22, 20172 mins

Because of diminished resources, the two JavaScript-related projects are being merged

Proponents of the jQuery Mobile web framework and the jQuery UI widgets and themes collection are looking for new blood to revive these stalled projects, which are to be combined into a single effort.

The past few years have been “difficult” for both projects, said Alex Schmitz, who has become the new project lead. Both projects have suffered from a lack of resources and funding as well a loss of contributors. “These combined factors have nearly stopped development on both projects,” he said.

To best use available resources, the two project teams will be combined, although separate repositories will exist for the mobile and UI projects. Participants are hoping for a continued reduction in the amount of duplicated code and widgets. JQuery Mobile would eventually be made into a more of an application framework with all widgets living in jQuery UI. People interested in participating in these projects can join a new public Slack channel set up for that purpose.

Both projects were built atop the popular jQuery JavaScript library; all three are under the jurisdiction of the JS Foundation, the successor to the jQuery Foundation. JQuery Mobile has featured an HTML5 UI for mobile device platforms and is positioned as touch-optimized; jQuery UI is a curated set of UI interactions, effects, themes and widgets.

Paul Krill

Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. Paul has been covering computer technology as a news and feature reporter for more than 35 years, including 30 years at InfoWorld. He has specialized in coverage of software development tools and technologies since the 1990s, and he continues to lead InfoWorld’s news coverage of software development platforms including Java and .NET and programming languages including JavaScript, TypeScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Rust, and Go. Long trusted as a reporter who prioritizes accuracy, integrity, and the best interests of readers, Paul is sought out by technology companies and industry organizations who want to reach InfoWorld’s audience of software developers and other information technology professionals. Paul has won a “Best Technology News Coverage” award from IDG.

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