stressfree - ajax

Technometria's interview with Jason Smarr

David — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:39:39 +0000

Phil Windley has posted another really interesting Technometria podcast, this time featuring Joseph Smarr, the Chief Platform Architect of Plaxo:

http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail3593.html

Over the course of an hour Phil, Joseph and Scott Lemon cover a range of topics including (but not limited to):

The differences between traditional applications and web applications.
Creating efficient Javascript and the role of Javascript frameworks in this process.
Why HTML/Javascript is a better approach than proprietary Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) such as Adobe Flash/AIR and Microsoft Silverlight.
AJAX cross-site scripting opportunities and risks.
New functionality in Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 8 to enable better browser-level cross-site data transfer.
Data portability of social networking graphs and the OpenSocial API.

Overall it is a great listen and it is refreshing to hear from someone who still believes traditional Web technologies like HTML and Javascript hold a great deal of potential. I cringe each time I hear proponents of Flash/AIR and Silverlight proclaim that these platforms will eventually dominate the Web. Sure the companies behind these technologies can give a great demonstration, but do we really want to turn the clock back twenty years to a world of closed development on one or two tightly controlled platforms?

Thomas Fuchs AJAX presentation & Google's AJAX API

David — Wed, 17 May 2006 20:42:22 +0000

Thomas Fuchs, the guy behind script.aculo.us recently did a presentation in San Francisco about AJAX that looked pretty interesting. He has is slide show online in PDF format here. Associated notes made during the presentation have been put online by the guys at Ajaxian.

Probably the coolest piece of information I did not know about was the link to a very cool window library for Prototype/script.aculo.us enhanced window objects.

At about the same time Google was announcing the immediate availability of their Google AJAX Toolkit for Java. It is interesting in that rather than acting as a HTML embedded AJAX library like Prototype/script.aculo.us is with Ruby on Rails this API seems targetted at Java coders used to writing Swing/AWT (desktop) application interfaces. This does not appeal to me much, I prefer the HTML/controller level coding of Ruby on Rails than writing a completely abstracted user interface in Java. Still the toolset provides a means by which a great many traditional desktop application programmers can start writing for the Internet using a toolset that is very similar to those available on the desktop.

What is Web 2.0 again?

David — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 01:35:50 +0000

There is a lot of talk about Web 2.0, my paper to CAADRIA even mentioned it in the title. Whether its a fad or the next big thing is fairly uncertain but it does provide a nice general purpose container for a bunch of different read/write Web concepts like blogging, tagging, and RSS. Certainly there is a lot of hype around the whole thing but as a general theme for a bunch of technologies it is pretty strong.

What I do think it is achieving is the evolution of a far more conceptually and technologically richer Web space. The Web is no longer about hugely expensive and flashy billboards, tightly controlled portals or online stores with weird names. Sure all these things still exist but they are now taking second place to far more dynamic sites with their background and identity rooted firmly in the Web rather than being simply the extension of a conventional organisation's operations. Web 2.0 seems also to be more about empowering the individual to be able to do things like get their own 'stuff' online and track/search the Web in ways that make sense to them. MySpace, Blogger.com, Technorati and Flickr are all successful Web 2.0 sites that have these fundamental ideas at their core. Recently Apple announced iWeb which is the first 'traditional' application that attempts to blur the lines between the computer, the Web and your life.

Personally I agree with Jonathan Boutelle, AJAX is not part of Web 2.0. If you do not know already AJAX (or to use the proper terminology Asynchronous JavaScript And XML) is a technique for updating a page without the user having to navigate to a different screen through a HTTP POST/GET request. The HTTP POST/GET requests still occur but in the background, usually tied to certain events on a page. AJAX provides a level of application richness that has been lacking from conventional HTML/Javascript but has always been a part of traditional programs. Consequently with its emergence we are seeing more Web applications that are mirroring the functionality of their traditional bretherin. Applications like GMail and Writely are beginning to replace Outlook and Word but this is merely a transition from an operating system based application silo to the more generic but still silo driven Web application space.

Tim O'Reilly has talked about the subject a lot in a couple of articles:

Plus his company helped organise a Web 2.0 Conference and many of the presentations can be listened to on IT Conversations.