The source code for ASP.NET AJAX is available for your reference, so you can pick through it and include the parts you want to continue using into a separate JS file. Or, you can port them to jQuery.
Here is the format function...
String.format = function() {
var s = arguments[0];
for (var i = 0; i < arguments.length - 1; i++) {
var reg = new RegExp("\\{" + i + "\\}", "gm");
s = s.replace(reg, arguments[i + 1]);
}
return s;
}
And here are the endsWith and startsWith prototype functions...
String.prototype.endsWith = function (suffix) {
return (this.substr(this.length - suffix.length) === suffix);
}
String.prototype.startsWith = function(prefix) {
return (this.substr(0, prefix.length) === prefix);
}