http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-XMLHttpRequest-20060405/

I find it interesting to see that the very foundation of what we annoying call “Ajax” (XMLHttpRequest) is now a W3C working draft and not a single Microsoft employee is listed as a contributing author.  

Microsoft first implemented the XMLHttpRequest object in Internet Explorer 5 for Windows as an ActiveX object. Engineers on the Mozilla project implemented a compatible native version for Mozilla 1.0 (and Netscape 7). Apple has done the same starting with Safari 1.2. (http://developer.apple.com/internet/webcontent/xmlhttpreq.html)

As you can tell I’m really starting to dislike this term Ajax.  As you probably already know it is by no means a new technology, just a really annoying nickname for something we in the web world have been doing for a number of years now.  From now on, let’s call it like we see it, “XHR”, and avoid the marketing buzzword.  If you are somewhat confused why I’m having a negative reaction against the buzzword, consider taking a look at this conference landing page: http://theajaxexperience.com/show_view.jsp?showId=58.  At last count it mentioned the buzzword about 135 times in the single page.  Is that a joke?  No.

Back to the XHR Working Draft…

Has Microsoft simply declined participation or have they even been invited?

It would be interesting to see if MSFT does actually participate with this.  It would mean that they would probably have to introduce breaking changes into the API for XHR on all windows systems, effectively breaking all JavaScript XHR source, and any server side functionality which uses this object.  I highly doubt MSFT would do this.

So, in my opinion, if it meant MSFT had to change their implementation I would NOT like them participate in the working group.  Quite simply, I do not want to have to recode any of my applications because the industry has finally gotten its act in gear and tried to do something for the community.

On that same note, why can’t the working group simply document the MSFT implementation 100% in full, and use it as the standard.  Considering the market is completely dominated by the one browser (80%+ is IE) this simply just makes sense.  In this case I would love to see MSFT’s participation as purely a reference point.

1 Comment

• Puleen Patel said Wednesday, May 3, 2006 4:51:00 AM

  I back you up 110% on not calling it Ajax and stick with XHR as the official term for what is now coined Ajax. I believe one of the AdaptivePath peopled coined the term and it was stuck.