They are not the same. The first situation, $.prompt(x), is just a function, attached to the jQuery namespace. This is useful if you're creating a function and you want to put it somewhere without creating a new function in the global namespace. Beyond that, it behaves as any normal function would. For example:
$.prompt = function(x) { ... }; jQuery.prompt = function(x) { ... }; The second situation, $(selector).prompt(x), is a jQuery plugin. Typically it would operate on a jQuery object. A jQuery object usually represents none-or-many matched elements. These plugins are stored in the jQuery.fn namespace like so: $.fn.prompt = function(x) { ... }; jQuery.fn.prompt = function(x) { ... }; Within the plugin function, "this" refers to the jQuery object it's being called on. The collection of elements is often iterated over using this.each(function() { ... }); Within that function, "this" will refer to an individual matched element. To allow proper chaining, the final statement in $.fn.prompt() should be "return this;" Obviously that's a very brief explanation of how plugin functions work. If you need more detail, seek out some tutorials on writing jQuery plugins. Hope that helps. -Kelly On May 28, 11:18 am, kiusau <kiu...@mac.com> wrote: > QUESTION: Do $.prompt(temp) and $().prompt(temp) mean the same > thing? If they do not mean the same, how are they different. > > Roddy