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AJAX hype

 
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Back in 1996 there was a great deal of hype about the use of Java applets in web pages to produce truly high-quality interactive web applications. This has remained a niche approach for a number of reasons, some of which were solved by the Java Plug-In and Java WebStart. Nevertheless, use of client-side Java is still unusual in web applications.

I've recently read some hype about the AJAX design pattern -- the use of asynchronous data to the server on behalf of a highly interactive Javascript program running on the browser. The Javascript handles user events, communicates with the server, and uses dynamic XHTML to generate GUI.

What remaining obstacles to the use of client-side Java are solved by the AJAX approach? Why is Javascript code faster to download than Java applets? Why are screens generated by dynamic XHTML faster than screens built using AWT or Swing?

One advantage of using Java as the client-side language are that you can debug the applet GUI in a standard Java IDE, whereas there is no convenient debugging environment for AJAX. A second advantage is that, as one refactors an application's architecture, one has the ability to move utility code from server to client (or vice-versa).

What advantages does the AJAX approach have over downloaded Java code?
 
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I think the main difference is that Java in the browser is always treated like an add-on, while JavaScript is a core part. Applet GUIs are a whole separate thing from HTML, the browser's stock and trade. Somewhere, buried in the bowels of Usenet, there's an old pre-JavaScript post from me that I can still remember about this topic; I was saying that the Applet design really missed the point of what an interactive Web application could be like. Because Applets never had simple access to form elements and the page rendering engine, they were doomed to second-class citizenship from the start.

JavaScript, on the other hand, is seamlessly integrated into the HTML/CSS/DOM machinery. JavaScript can touch everything on a page, react to it, influence it, and change it. That means as browser technology has advanced, JavaScript has gotten free capability upgrades, with an exctremely low maintenance and documentation burden. Every HTML guide and CSS manual has useful information that the JavaScript programmer can use.

Meanwhile, the poor Applet developer has a mountain of poorly-organized, usually out-of-date documentation to slog through about code signing, policy files, etc., none of which s/he could care less about, just to do the most basic things -- and useful code signing costs money, providing a barrier to entry for the hobbyist.
 
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I have been working with AJAX and it is very helpful! It makes pages seamless making it feel like you are working on a client application and not a web application!

The thing I really love about it is JavaScript is getting recognition.

Eric
 
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