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Advanced Requests and Responses in Ajax
An anonymous reader writes "The Web is no longer a place where simple applications are tolerated; 'users have become more advanced, customers expect robustness and advanced error reporting, and managers are fired because an application goes down 1 percent of the time. It's your job then, to go beyond a simple Ajax application that requires a more thorough understanding of XMLHttpRequest.' This DevWorks article tries to help developers use Ajax to build a solid foundation in which an application handles errors and problems smoothly."
Um, aren't these concepts something we learned in college??? This is just basic stuff... although I think it highlights how RAD languages can teach you sloppy coding habits if you don't take the time do do things correctly.
ConsultingFair.com
users have become more advanced
.. do they care how those are achieved? Generally, nope.
.. the article talks about AJAX .. AJAX relies on JavaScript. Between 7% and 10% of web users have JavaScript turned off either implicitly or due to their IE security level. Surely if you're creating an AJAX application then you must realise the application is already unavailable to 7% of users even when your server is up and running? If high availability is key then you'd better not be using anything beyond HTML.
They really haven't actually. They've stopped being mostly geeks and academics and now the internet is open to all. Users are much, much less advanced today than they were ten years ago. What has changed in more recent times is that the users now they're think more advanced. They're presented with interesting social networks (FlickR, Blogger, deli.co.us, etc), and they're capable of using these straightforward interfaces with lots of handholding (rebranding categories as tags for example) and they get the impression that they're learning something. Does that mean they know, or care, what an XMLHTTPRequest is? Nope.
The same goes for customers. Yes, they want advanced reporting and robust apps
As for managers being fired for an application being unavailable 1% of the time
http://twitter.com/onion2k
The correct answer is c
c)Have the people who understand the engineering write pseudocode algorithms and work hand in hand with real programmers.
The advantages you get from this- code that doesn't look like shit and have major architectural short commings, and much easier/cheaper maintenance. While I'm sure an Aero can learn to do basic programming in a month or so, it does take a few years to write good, well designed code. Whereas an experienced programmer can write equivalent functionality in 1/10 the time. By working together, you end up with higher quality software for much cheaper. This is the same way you see EEs and MechEs working with programmers in the embedded world.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
But c) will also half the maintenance costs of your crappy code.
The Web is no longer a place where simple applications are tolerated
Not so. Simple = GOOD, just look at the success of google; no fancy front end required. AJAX, like good special effects in a movie, can enhance the end-user experience when applied selectively and intelligently. They are NOT an end in themselves.
The truth is, the web is a place were only USEFUL applications are tolerated, whether or not they use AJAX.
"Is this just useless, or is it expensive as well?"
Not in the medium to long term. The improved maintainability (and very likely, quicker turn around time) of the programmer's code will very quickly make up the cost and more. If a good programmer can turn an algorithm from an aero to code in 1/4 the time (which is not, by any means, an unreasonable assumption) you end up saving money very quickly- you can hire 4 aero engineers to code, or you can hir 1 programmer and 1 aero engineer. And the aero might have free bandwidth to do more aero based stuff as well.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?