Possible to defer loading of jQuery?

Question

Let\'s face it, jQuery/jQuery-ui is a heavy download.

Google recommends deferred loading of JavaScript to speed up initial rendering. My page uses jQuery to set up s

Answer 1

Here's my version which supports chaining to be sure the scripts are loaded one after each other, based on ampersand's code:

var deferredJSFiles = ['jquery/jquery', 'file1', 'file2', 'file3'];
function downloadJSAtOnload() {
    if (!deferredJSFiles.length)
        return;
    var deferredJSFile = deferredJSFiles.shift();
    var element = document.createElement('script');
    element.src = deferredJSFile.indexOf('http') == 0 ? deferredJSFile : '/js/' + deferredJSFile + '.js';
    element.onload = element.onreadystatechange = function() {
        if (!this.readyState || this.readyState == 'loaded' || this.readyState == 'complete')
            downloadJSAtOnload();
    };
    document.body.appendChild(element);
}
if (window.addEventListener)
    window.addEventListener('load', downloadJSAtOnload, false);
else if (window.attachEvent)
    window.attachEvent('onload', downloadJSAtOnload);
else
    window.onload = downloadJSAtOnload;