I think Joel Spolsky summed up AJAX well http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/FB4.5.html In the last year or so a lot of web developers have been working hard on
improving their applications using techniques now known as *Ajax*. These applications use JavaScript code so that when you click on something, you get immediate feedback, rather than waiting for the web server to send you a new page at its own leisurely pace. When they do need more information from the server, they often download the small fragment they need, rather than waiting for the server to build a whole new page. The net result is faster, crisper feedback that *makes you feel in control* and creates "subjective well-being," a.k.a. happiness, a feeling that is biochemically NO DIFFERENT THAN EATING LARGE QUANTITIES OF CHOCOLATE.
Just a minute... I have to pause for some fact checking ...
... ok, I'm back. To summarize, Ajax = Chocolate = Happiness, and so we knew, when we started planning FogBugz 5.0, that Ajax features would be an important part of this release.
On 5/17/06, Khalid B <kb@2bits.com> wrote:
Google released their Google Web Toolkit.
It allows AJAX development in Java (yes, you read that right!)
http://code.google.com/webtoolkit/
Slashdot discussion http://developers.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/05/17/127214
Digg http://digg.com/programming/New_Google_tool_compiles_Java_to_AJAX