Claude Montpetit -- Montpetit.net -- en

In my previous post, I mentionned Google's web application's User Interface (a Rich Web interface that is). This approach has a name: AJAX

Ajax isn’t a technology. It’s really several technologies, each flourishing in its own right, coming together in powerful new ways. Ajax incorporates:

• standards-based presentation using XHTML and CSS;
• dynamic display and interaction using the Document Object Model;
• data interchange and manipulation using XML and XSLT;
• asynchronous data retrieval using XMLHttpRequest;
• and JavaScript binding everything together.

[ ... ]

[FAQ:] Are Ajax applications easier to develop than traditional web applications?

[Answer]. Not necessarily. Ajax applications inevitably involve running complex JavaScript code on the client. Making that complex code efficient and bug-free is not a task to be taken lightly, and better development tools and frameworks will be needed to help us meet that challenge.

Hm... complex JavaScript code ... better development tools and framework will be needed... I do not think I will cut myself on this edge yet. I have enough scars already.

I learned about AJAX from a post on SixApart (intersting post btw about free open source stuff that turns commercial.) The previous post there has good links to Firefox extensions -- Firefox, another other platform.

Their much talked about new site, maps.google.com, which deserves all the hype it has generated, shows that they know what ease of use is all about.

I have used sites like mapquest.com many times. Their multi-fields form-based interface works, but has way too many required field: Address, city, state, must all be specified and validated, and by default, only US based maps are available. If you enter something that mapquest does not accept, they abruptly tell you that you are wrong.

With Google maps, just enter an address and a city in a single text field, and you get the map. If Google is not sure about what you want, it offers you a list of possibilities. Once you see the map you were looking for, a single click will switch to a satellite-image version of the map.

But on the other hand, this is built in JavaScript. Have you looked at the source code of gmail, or maps? This is JavaScript pushed to the limit. It is my belief that desktop applications have a second life these days, but looking at what Google does with JavaScript, what is next ?

Here is a document I generated. It is also available in its final online format at the MIT, and also in PDF.

There are others that I also produced, if you have time to read them: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Abstract

The software engineering solution to operating systems is defined not only by the investigation of robots, but also by the appropriate need for systems. After years of unproven research into e-business, we verify the improvement of consistent hashing. While it might seem perverse, it is buffetted by existing work in the field. We motivate an application for evolutionary programming (Omelet), validating that online algorithms and hash tables can interact to surmount this riddle.

Two recent good links suggested by MicroISV:

• The Dos and Don'ts of Presenting at DEMO
• And a good summary of the advantages of Bootstrapping.

Some american sites have talked about the Gomery Commission's ban content. One blog in particular has a good analysis of the real meaning of a ban considering that the information can circulate anyway on the Internet.

My logs show that the vast majority of my hits are from Canadian sources, including media and government servers (there are few on normal days). I suspect Ed's site is showing similar demographics. That means that a lot of Canadians are becoming aware of the information.

I link to the article on this site for the analysis only and I will ask that you do not read any other entry that may present banned content. So reader's discretion is advised.

And who said that americans knew nothing about Canada? Well, this guy knows a lot and I learned some things in this interesting article about the division between the Chretien and Martin clans.

Excerpt:

Pendant que j'écris ces lignes, des centaines d'enfants meurent de faim et du Sida en Afrique. À quelques milliers de kilomètres de là, un homme se meurt aussi. Pas de faim, mais d'une mort "normale" d'homme âgé. Il est un... more