Internet News -- Recent innovations in web design are ushering in a new era for internet-based software applications. That’s giving software developers a wide open platform for creating new programs that have no relation to the underlying operating system that runs a PC. Meaning less reloading, faster navigation.
Evidence of this evolution has been popping up everywhere in recent months, with examples that include Google's online map rendering software and its Gmail service, Amazon's A9 search engine and NetFlix's DVD rental platform. All highlight a dramatic rethinking of web applications, using a programming technique dubbed AJAX (for asynchronous JavaScript and XML) that significantly improves how web pages interact with data, for the first time rivaling programs that run natively on the desktop.
A9 AMAZONE SEARCH
"For a user it is fundamentally different -- it feels like a real application," said Rael Dornfest, chief technology officer for O'Reilly Media.
AJAX overcomes a severe limitation in traditional web interfaces, which must reload anytime they try to call up new data. By contrast, AJAX lets users manipulate data without clicking through to a new page, Dornfest said. That's putting an end to page refreshes and other interruptions that have handicapped wweb-based applications until now.
Web developers are creating AJAX code libraries and conventions to ease the burden of making applications that speak several computer languages. Even Microsoft is jumping into the game, albeit with hooks that aim to keep it tethered to its Windows OS. The company recently announced it is developing its own AJAX toolbox, called Atlas, for web developers who use Microsoft's ASP.NET technologies to build websites.
Perhaps the best known example of AJAX is Google Maps, whose improbable drop shadows and absurdly movable maps spread shock and awe among web developers in February.
Jesse James Garrett, a co-founder of the Adaptive Path consulting firm gave AJAX its name in an influential essay.
"The deep trend here is that we are really starting to figure out what the web is good for," he explained in an interview with some Tech publications. "This is the web coming into its own as a medium for software applications."
According to Garrett, designers of the first generation of web applications relied on the model of desktop software, and then dumbed them down to fit in a browser. Gmail, the Google webmail service released last year, awakened Garrett and many others to the possibility of a new style of web applications.
"Everyone thought the story of web user interface for e-mail ended in 1999," Garrett said. "Then Google comes along five years later and says 'There is more we can do here,' and demonstrated it in an uncompromising way -- not relying on Flash but simply using browser-native technologies and pushing them as far as they can go."
While Microsoft wants to be part of the AJAX revolution, its major focus for developers is on helping them build lively, multimedia Windows desktop applications for its next operating systems.
To that end, Microsoft included a user interface development tool called Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly codenamed Avalon) in last week's release of a small batch of test versions of Vista, its long-delayed successor to Windows XP.
Atlas, Microsoft's AJAX equivalent, won't likely be shown to web developers before the company's developer conference in September.
Microsoft said "We recognize the need in certain scenarios for browser-based, standards-based stuff and that’s where we have ATLAS technology, which is going to simplify the development of AJAX content," Key said, "But when you are talking about richness and fullness and really doing amazing things that approach cinematic user interfaces, you are going to need a richer technology, and that’s what Windows Presentation Foundation is all about."
Experts say they don't expect AJAX will make desktop applications obsolete. But it has already affirmed the viability of the web as a standalone software development platform.
Compare, Shop, and Save on all your telecommunication needs, like: Domain names, web hosting, web design, and more. Also get the best deals on computer products and office supplies, you can customize your own Gateway, MCpc, or Systemax system for less.
Permission is granted to use this article on your site. The
author's byline must be included and all links must be hyperlinked.
No comments:
Post a Comment