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WHAT IS AJAX?

What?! You don’t know? And you call yourself a nerd…

AJAX is short for: ‘Asynchronous JavaScript and XML’. AJAX is a combination of technologies that have been around for years.

• HTML/XHTML
• CSS
• DOM
• JavaScript
• XMLHttpRequest object to exchange data asynchronously.

From Wikipedia:

Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, or Ajax, is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications.

ARE FLASH’S DAYS NUMBERED?

With AJAX gaining mind share and the fact that it works in all the major browsers, I am wondering if Flash’s days are numbered in terms of rich web application development?

And if Flash never gains that position in the market place, will Flash become another one of marginal technologies? Think about it, who wants a Flash ‘intro’ these days?

MY POINT OF VIEW

I think that Macromedia (now Adobe,) had priced their way out of the market with the cost of Flex.

Besides that, the one big hurdle that Macromedia always faced was that to use Flash, you need to learn Flash - an environment that is alien to programmers.

… Flash’s legacy as an animation software, is still very obvious despite Macromedia’s effort to hide that in the last release of Flash MX.

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Manning Publications has provided me with a short video introduction to AJAX that is worth watching - if you’re a nerd who can understand at least a little programming.

Download the Quicktime video on AJAX (8.2 megs)

Note: you will need Quicktime 7.