Repost from my <a href="http://ajaxian.com/archives/jquery-ui-and-jquery-enchant-alpha-versions-released-today">Ajaxian.com posting</a>:

The jQuery UI team <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/jquery-ui/browse_thread/thread/db8276574e20a5be/6a406868c7390d83#6a406868c7390d83">announced today the release of alpha versions of jQuery UI 1.5a and jQuery Enchant 1.0a</a>! The projects aim to address the need for a strong set of UI controls and effects to complement the <a href="http://jquery.com">jQuery JavaScript library</a>.


<blockquote>I&apos;m very happy to announce the first alpha release of both jQuery UI 1.5 and jQuery Enchant 1.0 to all the adventurous guys out there. This is a huge update - the whole API has been standardized and updated, and many of the plugins have been completely rewritten. jQuery Enchant is the missing part of UI: A library completely devoted to rich effects. It already features all effects you know from scriptaculous/interface, as well as many more great additions: color animations, class animations and highly configurable effects. </blockquote>

Taking a much more cautious approach this time around, the team has made it clear that this is an alpha release which will go through further testing and has requested heavy community involvement to ensure solid libraries are released in a final version. 

The code and demos for the two libraries can be found here:

jQuery UI:
<p>
<a href="http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/files/jquery.ui-1.5a.zip">http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/files/jquery.ui-1.5a.zip</a><br />
<a href="http://ui.jquery.com/1.5a/demos/">http://ui.jquery.com/1.5a/demos/</a><br />

</p>
jQuery Enchant:
<p>
<a href="http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/files/jquery.enchant-1.0a.zip">http://jqueryjs.googlecode.com/files/jquery.enchant-1.0a.zip</a><br />
<a href="http://ui.jquery.com/enchant/1.0a/demos/ ">http://ui.jquery.com/enchant/1.0a/demos/ </a><br />

It&apos;s important to note that both jQuery UI and Enchant require the newly jQuery v1.2.3 which was released last night.
<p>
<a href="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.2.3.js">http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.2.3.js</a><br />
<a href="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.2.3.min.js">http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.2.3.min.js</a><br />

<a href="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.2.3.pack.js">http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.2.3.pack.js</a><br />
<p>