It’s that time in a technology’s lifecycle when myths abound and someone wheels out a collection of “myths” and retorts. Here’s my contribution to that time-honoured genre. Nine myths in 37 minutes.
Myth: “AJAX”
Reality: Ajax
Myth: Ajax is rocket science
Reality: It’s an incremental progression
Myth: Javascript sucks
Reality: It doesn’t
Myth: The URL’s always the same
Reality: Unique URLs are possible
Myth: Ajax==XMLHttpRequest
Reality: There are other remoting technologies, and some Ajax apps don’t need any at all
Myth: The server must output XML
Reality: Server can output plain-text or specialised formats like JSON
Myth: Ajax lets websites spy on users.
Reality: The same “spying” techniques have already been possible using images and form submissions.
Myth: Ajax will crush Flash.
Reality: Flash can augment Ajax.
Myth: Ajax will rule the world!
Reality: Ajax still has many challenges ahead: usability, accessibility, portability, scaleabiity …
7 responses so far ↓
1 james // Oct 23, 2005 at 2:24 am
yeah, the “Ajax will crush Flash” is just wishful thinking. Doesn’t hurt to dream though (please, please, please just die, Flash).
2 Anonymous // Oct 23, 2005 at 9:55 pm
well ajax is just a sexy word for normal web dev.
thats all what people fail to see..
been doign “ajax” for long time without knowing there was a super hype word for it..
3 Steven // Oct 26, 2005 at 1:47 am
Javascript does suck. That doesn’t make Ajax any less powerful, but Javascript is terrible. Languages with case sensitive variable names and dynamic variable creation are very difficult to program in. Nevermind the endless quirks, like any string starting with a zero is interpreted as Octal…
4 mahemoff // Oct 26, 2005 at 1:56 am
James, I think Flash has a role – it’s when it’s used for pure bling that people get turned off. For example, Flash would be a good way to make a multimedia Ajax app that incorporates video or voice recording.
Anonymous, you’re right. That Ajax is new is another myth.
Steven, I’m not sure if that’e entirely serious
.
5 Christopher Michael // Oct 28, 2005 at 1:48 pm
Steven, if that’s the worst you can come up with, don’t expect a lot of sympathy from us – those are things where if you make a mistake, you make it only once – they certainly aren’t language flaws. If you don’t understand JS, it’s because you don’t want to.
6 FP Images // Feb 20, 2007 at 10:45 pm
“been doign “ajax” for long time without knowing there was a super hype word for it..”
I was using term “call back”… Now I know – I was doing “ajax”:)
7 proxy // May 7, 2007 at 10:15 pm
Myth: Javascript sucks
Reality: It doesn’t
Im this guy who think Javascript sucks, really!
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