Ajax

I am going to work more with AJAX.

The key is, of course, the “A” part ("asynchronous", or you may say the X stands for XmlHttpRequest-like; however, XML is not relevant here, it is almost a misnomer) -- it is asynchronous with the browser’s main page. You may say, we used “frame” for that. Yes, you did, but that was hack; this is the norm, and, of course, more powerful.

Yes, all its elements have been there for a while -- even the "A" part; but they hav not been "integrated" until the concept/term of "AJAX". Perhaps “google” makes all those techniques suddenly popular; howevere, perhaps, the bigger picture is that broadband is really taking off now, and it is time for us to have a “new” Internet programming/usage model.

Now, browsers have the same power as that of the windows. However, browsers have one more responsibility: it must be “backward compatible” with different browsers (“browsers war”), and their previous “page-centric” (or “document-centric”) usage model. “Browser war” can be handled by the similar techniques we used in the past (it is more complex now; but we can get more help from Atlas-like things); however, the trade-off of the “page-centric” model and the “asynchronous” application model is new, and is very interesting.

The key: do not feel that AJAX is a new technology and therefore simply dismiss the page-centric model. There are reasons for page-centric model: (1) web started with static html; (2) users are used to page-centric; (3) you may ask: why web started with static html? – The answer: it is not just web. The most popular productivity tool and the cash cow for the almighty M$ -- M$ 0ffice is also document centric! The whole business of office-automation is document-centric. In addition, another big piece, “report”, is also document-centric. My point: application centric and document/page centric are much deeper than window and web; they are within each of the platforms.

I noticed vikas has at least three blogs/links on this topic. I recomment start with reading his blogs, and of course, google search.
http://vikasnetdev.blogspot.com/2006/04/how-i-stopped-worrying-about-browsers.html
http://vikasnetdev.blogspot.com/2006/04/atlas.html
http://vikasnetdev.blogspot.com/2005/07/ajax.html