Posted by Jeff on 02/01/08 02:08

Mango wrote:
> I currently make my living with AJAX, so you'll get some excitement from
> me :)
>
> Most of my life I've been fairly anti-JavaScript...for the simple reason
> that I want my sites to be as accessible as possible...and there's STILL
> the odd hit we get from someone with Netscape 4 or even 3. So even now,
> on public websites at least, I use Javascript only when necessary.

It's been public or at least back end web maintenance issues I've been
interested in. But it's obvious that amongst the general populace that
javascript is widely left on. I hadn't realized google maps was AJAX and
I suppose all those chat support windows are also.

>
> My anti-JavaScriptness changed when I got given a project about two
> years ago. "Write a program to keep track of our company's customers,
> let staff make changes to name/address details, and have it accept
> credit cards to act as a POS if a customer wants to buy something."
>
> The company in question had relatively decent computer equipment, all
> running Windows with Firefox/IE...a perfect situation in which to use
> all the JavaScript tricks I'd had hidden away. Here are the advantages
> to my program:
>
> - It's just as usable and responsive as a desktop application and in
> some cases is faster due to having a powerful web server.
> - It's easily scalable. If they get a new employee, all they need is a
> computer with internet access. There's no special software to install.
> And if I wish to make an upgrade, I need only do it on the server.

I can really see how database type apps really benefit from this. And
that you are running this off shared hosting really knocks the socks off
of running a citrix server.

I see that there a number of AJAX libraries. What do they have to offer?


> - Since the application is online, remote access is a non-issue.
> Employees may work from home or a branch office.
> - It's inexpensive to maintain. My program currently runs off a shared
> hosting server that they pay $7/month for. Of course, it could just as
> easily run off a setup with a dedicated database server, and
> load-balanced web servers.
> - Unlimited employees, one credit card processing account.
> - Uses industry-standard database such as MySQL or PostgreSQL.
>
> I don't agree with some who say that webapps are going to replace
> desktop applications. For instance, I refuse to use webmail.

Yeah!

But,
> webapps definitely made the most sense for the kind of projects I do.
>
> Hope my point of view helps :)
>

Thanks,
Jeff
> -Mango
>
>
>
>
> Jeff wrote:
>> I've been busy hacking my way through my to do list and have come to
>> writing an interactive help menu. I thought I'd use Ajax here in place
>> of a popup window. I really dislike popups.
>>
>> Now, I can think of a handfull of uses for Ajax but since it
>> operates in the background I'm not seeing much of it the real world.
>>
>> Who is using ajax in their work or using sites that use it? I'd like
>> to know what all the excitement is about. I feel like I'm missing
>> something...
>>
>> Jeff

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