AJAX moves toward open source
ThinkCAP JX, from Clearnova, will have a GPL runtime.
AJAX is all-caps because it's an acronym, Asynchronous Javascript And XML. Thinkcap is designed to make all this programming easy and transparent, more like using an HTML authoring tool than writing Javascript code.
Dana Gardner writes that this is yet-another recognition by software startups that the proprietary model does not work, and that they need to get behind the open source business model of service, support, and consulting income.
It is all that and more, in my opinion.
AJAX is an especially important Web technology. It delivers self-service sites that are highly graphic, pleasantly interactive, and database driven. If you've ever been on a AJAX page, with buttons that rise up to meet you as you mouse over them, and that seem to know where you want to go before you do, then you know what I'm talking about.
Thinkcap, as I noted, makes it easier to deliver such sites. They're not alone in this business. Microsoft is adding AJAX support to ASP .NET
What excites me most is the huge productivity boost in creating what are sometimes called Web 3.0 sites, either deep sites or self-service. (Want a demonstration? Click here.) The improvement will mean faster site creation, it will mean a better Web experience even without faster broadband speeds, and it will mean a real transformation of the Web as we know it.
Oh, yeah, and with the latest news from Clearnova, the software to create this with minimal training is free.