Let's talk about true and false. Ah, basic boolean? No, not exactly. AJAX is one of the most common buzz-words in website development today. True. Most web-developers are able to write AJAX. False. Most web-developers who create fancy 'AJAX-effect's know how to write AJAX. False.
Pick up a book on AJAX, and often as not it will start off by telling you that the key to AJAX is 'this' framework or 'that' library. Ooops... that's not teaching you AJAX, that's teaching you how to use a tool for setting up dynamic interaction. The AJAX was written by the guy who created the framework or the library.
What's so special about AJAX? To be honest, nothing. It's elegant; but what it gains in elegance it loses in both speed and support.
More true and false. AJAX is the only way to set up asynchronous communication with a server. False. AJAX is the name for things which aren't Flash but look like Flash. False. AJAX requires ActiveX support to run on Internet Explorer, the disabling of which has long been highly recommended to all. True. AJAX is fast. False
So; my message for today is to ditch those AJAX frameworks and libraries. If you couldn't write it yourself then you shouldn't use it on a production website; you have no idea what's happening and that's a recipe for all kinds of problems.
The good news is that if you stay tuned, I'll teach you all about our own ultra-simple system which we call AJAMAGIC
(Asynchronous Javascript and Magic).
Alloyfish
