Who needs this steekin Ajax

Long time ago on the DSSSL list I heard a slight variant on the title of this entry. It was Norm Walsh talking about an older form of page layout. The sense was that he'd found something much better. That's how I felt when I read this piece on xml.com. Put together three standard technologies and suddenly there's a light at the end of the tunnel. I've looked at Ajax and shied away, couple of reasons. I've a (possibly unwarranted) revulsion for the dom. I really don't like javascript syntax, it seems so odd and stilted. I've also had very little to do with server side development. On which basis I've probably very little right to start criticising the status quo. What I do feel is a real need for a peer to peer communications channel. I'm not really comfortable with the client server idea. My guess is that for business use the lead is taken by different points on the network at different times. Agreed at times and for good reason, someone needs to lead. Also that any server would be daft to allow PUT to it's domain by random peers. So, constrained by just a little common sense XRX provides a model with so much going for it.

Scenarios:

1. I want to order a book from Amazon. I GET a part pre-filled form from them. I fill it in using X-forms. Validation is local to my PC. I PUT it back to AMAZON. They store it in their XML database. They extract the necesseries and process it. How boring. We both (the two peers) have nice XML instance to play with, for which there are lots of toys and tools. I haven't disrupted many of the interfaces, so I can't see it screwing up whole industries.

2. I want to report in to my company on todays sales. I GET an appropriate form from my company server. Fill it in, validate locally... PUT .. yes, you got it. It's the same isn't it.

That's what's so good about XRX. It puts anchors on Roys thesis. It brings a bit of common sense to an academic idea that was founded in common sense but was pretty hard to grock (or so I found it to be, apart from the fundemental ideas). I read the article and pondered it without a single negative reaction. It's the simplicity of it that makes it so attractive. Neat

Seems the author is taking feedback at his blog. Could be worth following