At the Carson Web 2.0 Summit last week (annotated here, tag: futureofwebapps), several speakers repeated the message that what AJAX is supposed to stand for (specifically, Asynchronous JavaScript And XML) is actually a misnomer, as the only thing that's actually required is the asynchronous bit (and I'd take issue with that were it not for the fact that Javascript is only single threaded (at least, for the moment)).
So - what does it stand for? Some combination of DOM Manipulation, CSS and remote scripting, mashed together to give a rich browser based app, I reckon...
What can't be denied, however, was that coinng the AJAX moniker did give momentum to the popular uptake of the AJAX way of doing things, along with a few widely cited - and experienced - AJAX apps (the GMails, and the rest).
So - what does AJAX stand for? Neat web app interfaces, I'd say, rather than someone out of a Greek tragedy, a series of doomed automobiles or Asynchronous JavaScript And XML.
Posted by ajh59 at February 13, 2006 12:15 AM