Disabled the passthrough .attr(method_name) functionality. You can now use it if you do: .attr({method_name: value}, true) OR as an easy initialization method: jQuery('<div/>', {html: '...', id: 'test'}).

src/attributes.js

@@ -232,13 +232,13 @@ jQuery.extend({
 		offset: true
 	},
 		
-	attr: function( elem, name, value ) {
+	attr: function( elem, name, value, pass ) {
 		// don't set attributes on text and comment nodes
 		if ( !elem || elem.nodeType === 3 || elem.nodeType === 8 ) {
 			return undefined;
 		}
 
-		if ( name in jQuery.attrFn && value !== undefined ) {
+		if ( pass && name in jQuery.attrFn ) {
 			return jQuery(elem)[name](value);
 		}
 

src/core.js

@@ -84,7 +84,13 @@ jQuery.fn = jQuery.prototype = {
 					ret = rsingleTag.exec( selector );
 
 					if ( ret ) {
+						if ( jQuery.isPlainObject( context ) ) {
+							selector = [ document.createElement( ret[1] ) ];
+							jQuery.fn.attr.call( selector, context, true );
+
+						} else {
 							selector = [ doc.createElement( ret[1] ) ];
+						}
 
 					} else {
 						ret = buildFragment( [ match[1] ], [ doc ] );
@@ -687,13 +693,13 @@ function evalScript( i, elem ) {
 
 // Mutifunctional method to get and set values to a collection
 // The value/s can be optionally by executed if its a function
-function access( elems, key, value, exec, fn ) {
+function access( elems, key, value, exec, fn, pass ) {
 	var length = elems.length;
 	
 	// Setting many attributes
 	if ( typeof key === "object" ) {
 		for ( var k in key ) {
-			access( elems, k, key[k], exec, fn );
+			access( elems, k, key[k], exec, fn, value );
 		}
 		return elems;
 	}
@@ -704,7 +710,7 @@ function access( elems, key, value, exec, fn ) {
 		exec = exec && jQuery.isFunction(value);
 		
 		for ( var i = 0; i < length; i++ ) {
-			fn( elems[i], key, exec ? value.call( elems[i], i ) : value );
+			fn( elems[i], key, exec ? value.call( elems[i], i ) : value, pass );
 		}
 		
 		return elems;

test/unit/attributes.js

@@ -190,16 +190,16 @@ test("attr(jquery_method)", function(){
 		elem = $elem[0];
 	
 	// one at a time	
-	$elem.attr('html', 'foo');
+	$elem.attr({'html': 'foo'}, true);
 	equals( elem.innerHTML, 'foo', 'attr(html)');
 	
-	$elem.attr('text', 'bar');
+	$elem.attr({'text': 'bar'}, true);
 	equals( elem.innerHTML, 'bar', 'attr(text)');
 	
-	$elem.attr('css', {color:'red'});
+	$elem.attr({'css': {color:'red'}}, true);
 	ok( /^(#ff0000|red)$/i.test(elem.style.color), 'attr(css)');
 	
-	$elem.attr('height', 10);
+	$elem.attr({'height': 10}, true);
 	equals( elem.style.height, '10px', 'attr(height)');
 	
 	// Multiple attributes
@@ -207,7 +207,7 @@ test("attr(jquery_method)", function(){
 	$elem.attr({
 		width:10,
 		css:{ paddingLeft:1, paddingRight:1 }
-	});
+	}, true);
 	
 	equals( elem.style.width, '10px', 'attr({...})');
 	equals( elem.style.paddingLeft, '1px', 'attr({...})');

test/unit/core.js

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ test("Basic requirements", function() {
 });
 
 test("jQuery()", function() {
-	expect(15);
+	expect(22);
 
 	// Basic constructor's behavior
 
@@ -62,6 +62,22 @@ test("jQuery()", function() {
 	equals( jQuery([1,2,3]).get(1), 2, "Test passing an array to the factory" );
 
 	equals( jQuery(document.body).get(0), jQuery('body').get(0), "Test passing an html node to the factory" );
+
+	var elem = jQuery("<div/>", {
+                width: 10,
+                css: { paddingLeft:1, paddingRight:1 },
+		text: "test",
+		"class": "test2",
+		id: "test3"
+        });
+
+        equals( elem[0].style.width, '10px', 'jQuery() quick setter width');
+        equals( elem[0].style.paddingLeft, '1px', 'jQuery quick setter css');
+        equals( elem[0].style.paddingRight, '1px', 'jQuery quick setter css');
+        equals( elem[0].childNodes.length, 1, 'jQuery quick setter text');
+        equals( elem[0].firstChild.nodeValue, "test", 'jQuery quick setter text');
+        equals( elem[0].className, "test2", 'jQuery() quick setter class');
+        equals( elem[0].id, "test3", 'jQuery() quick setter id');
 });
 
 test("selector state", function() {