Experiment to see if .live can be replaced - no it shouldn't be

jquery.live.js

/********* DON'T USE THIS **************/

/**
 * After thinking about it for a while, and as Kobi's comment says below
 * this still has the wasteful selector which is one of the big reasons 
 * to use delegate in the first place - so please don't use this.
 * - cheers, @rem
 */


(function ($) {
  
$.root = $(document); // hat tip: Cory Hart

// keep safe
$.fn._live = $.fn.live;
$.fn._die = $.fn.die;

$.fn.live = function (type, fn) {
  $.root.delegate(this.selector, type, fn);
  return this;
};

$.fn.die = function (type, fn) {
  $.root.undelegate(this.selector, type, fn);
  return this;
};

})(jQuery);

Where's $root defined? I only see $.root at the beginning.

@KrofDrakula - doh - cheers, typo there.

The main benefit of delegate is that you don't run the selector through the DOM, eg .delegate('div', ... ) doesn't search for all Divs.
With this, you still call $('div'), so I'm not sure I get the point.
I might be missing other aspects of delegate though...

It appears that the delegate method uses live (line 2411 http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.4.2.js) so you enter an infinite loop using delegate in a redefined live method.

@kobi - yeah, I just realised this a moment ago, the wasteful select is still happening so there's no point in replicating this at all. Much better just to do:

$(document).delegate('div', 'click', fn);