What's the most polite way to handle library dependencies when hosting code online?

Question

Let's say you've written nifty JavaScript library that requires jQuery, and you want to host this project on github.

Do you include the jQuery source with your project? Do you direct users to a download link for jQuery?

Answer 1

If you include jQuery with your code, then you should keep updating your Git repository to include the latest version of jQuery. In the case you don't update your repository, then users are obligated to download the code from your repository, download the latest jQuery, and replace the copy that comes with your library.
Rather than doing that, it is more polite to report where users can download jQuery, and test your library with the latest jQuery version to report to the users if there are any compatibility issues between your library and jQuery.

Answer 2

For any client-side library, I would suggest using a CDN.

<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5.2/jquery.min.js"></script>

Answer 3

You do both. The reason is that for the uninitiated, it is easier to use the version of jquery that you bundle.

People do that with java. They offer their software with java, and also without java...