Scratching My Head at AjaxWorld
March 20, 2007 – 6:36 pm by coachwei | Category conference |AjaxWorld is a great conference that hundrends of people gathered here at RooseVelt Hotel in NYC. You can see and hear the excitement around this new paradigm of computing. But once in while, there are things that are quite amusing.
- Java vs. Microsoft WPF : It was great to catch up with Richard Monson-Haefel here at AjaxWorld. Richard is one of the leading analysts that I have a lot of respect for. Richard told me that Douglas Crockford mentioned in his morning keynote session that Ajax, Flash and WPF are three leading technologies for client applications. When someone asked him about Java, Douglas said “Java is a little too late”. This makes people scratch their heads: Java has been on the client side for more than ten years. WPF is not even here yet. And you are saying “Java is a little too late”?
- Flash vs. ActiveX : I heard some Adobe folks pitching Rich Internet Applications and how great Flex is by explaining how bad technologies like ActiveX are. It makes me scratch my head wondering “Isn’t Flash an ActiveX?”
- Java Server Faces : Isn’t Web 2.0, Ajax and Rich Internet Application etc about utilizing client side processing power to deliver a better user experience? Isn’t this kind of new applications about a more client-centric (or at least a client/server balanced) computing architecture? JSF architecture is more server-centric that web 1.0 (for example, keeping the UI states on the server). Isn’t it a big step backwards?Oh yes, adding Ajax to JSF makes JSF “web 2.0 compliant”. Maybe adding Ajax to CICS will make CICS the technology of choice for Web 2.0 as well.
- Java Server Faces (again) : Some folks were pitching JSF and how JSF combined with Ajax makes the world so much better. My interpretation? Oh yes, the world is so much better because JSF’s server centric architecture requires customers to buy a few extra servers. Oh yes, there is Ajax too – it increases the number of server hits that would require customers to buy some more server licenses too.
- Portal : surprisingly that I didn’t see a lot of people talking about “portal” here. It does make me wonder whether people have finally learned that “portal products” are the dying dinosaurs from the Web 1.0 era. If you think about it, “portal” is one of the most worst designed products in the software history. We know that Web 1.0’s “click and refresh” paradigm is not desirable. When we develop an application or a website, we tend to use some JavaScript to compensate for this problem. “Portal servers” are so retarded that they actually coded the “click and full page” refresh into their DNA.
3 Responses to “Scratching My Head at AjaxWorld”
hehehe - regarding your comment about hearing a lot of people mentioning portals around here. I thought that was weird too. I overheard an entire pitch today that revolved around “providing a portal.”
By Matt Kaufman(http://www.mattisbusy.com/) on Mar 20, 2007
Java on the client biggest problem the way I see it lies with Sun's lack of vision, direction, marketing, what have you. For instance if you go to any of these Ajax (or RIA) related shows, and what do you see? You will see Adobe, and Microsoft pushing their Flex, and WPF as best as they can, garnering the largest mind share. While Sun on the other hand is still stuck on this legacy, pre Web 2.0 technology that is called JSF, and wasting all their resources, and marketing efforts trying to reposition this square peg into an Ajax round hole. All the while ignoring the great opportunity that they have with their Swing technology. This is not the first that Sun has bungled the desktop. They just don't understand it period. Let's hope the open source community will pick up the slack.
By Mike A. on Mar 21, 2007
Well that's why I want to go to New York, here is the place where big things happen, where the world changes. Hotels in NYC are special for me, they can proudly represent the city spirit.
By gordwick on Sep 12, 2007