AJAX! Web 2.0! Rich Internet Applications (RIA)!

Here's my little explanation about AJAX, some AJAX history, some ramblings and some pet peeves I have about the way people refer to it. It's basically one of my brain barfs, not necessarily well thought out. I just felt like writing down some thoughts in no particular order.

Well first off, you've probably heard about AJAX in the past few years. AJAX stand for asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Jesse Garrett is the one who coined this cool acronym.

All this stuff is nothing new even though it might appear to be. Those who've been in the web business since the late 90s probably know this, but AJAX has existed since Internet Explorer 5 (maybe 4, I can't remember). The only reason why it's more popular today and more widely used is because all the major browsers support it now.

Microsoft had an ActiveX object (and still do) called the XmlHTTPRequest object. This was what allowed for server calls in the background that when combined with dynamic HTML (DHTML) gave you AJAX. As far as I know, they were the first browser to have the XmlHTTPRequestObject. Mozilla followed suit later on as did other browsers. I wonder if it's safe to say that Microsoft and/or or Internet Explorer developers were the first ones to use/invent AJAX? (queue Linux users cursing). I'm not pro Microsoft or anything even though I develop in it all day long, but it seems like the last statement I wrote appears to be true. BTW, I love FireFox and am psyched for 3.1 with its JavaScript engine SpiderMonkey using TraceMonkey to speed up JavaScript performance.

Anyways, my major pet peeve about AJAX is that so many people confuse it with DHTML. Great libraries like Prototype, jQuery and Dojo are just JavaScript libraries that interact with the DOM to create cool DHTML effects. The AJAX component in all these libraries is quite tiny. Each of these libraries have some objects that at the lowest level end up calling the browser's XmlHttpRequest object. Aside from that, the rest is all DHTML.

Another thing about AJAX is its not always AJAX nowadays. A lot of people have switched to using JSON instead of XML, which would make it AJAJ I guess. Just doesn't sounds as cool though eh? Maybe AJ²? JSON was created by Douglas Crockford, who is the man when it comes to JavaScript. I prefer to call him the Crockenator even though I have never met him. If you look at John Reisig of jQuery fame, you'll notice that he follows a lot of what the Crockenator teaches. I can't stress enough how much you should read the Crockenator's book JavaScript: The Good Parts. It still amazes me how many web developers don't know JavaScript. In my eyes you don't know web unless you know JavaScript. Zing!

Rich Internet Applications however, have been around since Java Applet's existed. Think of applets as the predecessor to the XmlHttpRequest objects of browsers. Although some sites still use applets, I don't think they ever really caught on because Internet speeds were pretty slow at the time they first came onto the scene. As well, I don't know if it's just me, but I've always found applets super slow.

Anyways, that concludes my first online ramblings/rant. Please leave some comments if you have any.

Cheers,
Nick

Labels: AJAX, DHTML, DOM, Douglas Crockford, John Reisig, RIA, XmlHttpRequest