[hughes]

Have you ever started a js app thinking you don't need jQuery? It usually goes great until you need to make a request. One look at `XMLHttpRequest` and suddenly including a 92kb (unminified) library starts to sound appealing.

I'd happily include a 9kb (unminified) polyfill and work off the assumption that I can remove it a few years down the road.

[BinaryIdiot]

It's not so bad honestly. Just a little awkward. For my little JavaScript library I wrote a small utility that lets me do Ajax calls that work in node and the browser. It's limited but it's all I need and it's pretty well tested (msngr if you're board).

$.Ajax is awesome and while XMLHttpRequest is awkward it's pretty straight forward.

[seanp2k2]

If that's all you're after, I'd suggest something like Zepto win only the Ajax module: http://zeptojs.com

[ChrisDutrow]

Perhaps I'm naive, but shouldn't very many users already have jquery cached from several CDNs? So if you use a popular CDN for it, it should affect load times too much in most cases?

[Joeri]

Odds are a single retina icon in your app is larger than jquery. Worrying about javascript code size is like worrying about the drag of a car bumper sticker.