[dokuwiki] Re: AJAX spellchecker

On Tue, 17 May 2005 17:49:06 -0400
Christopher Stoll <stollcri@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> > May I ask a question? What is this AJAX going to do? Is it a online
> > spellcheker or an indexer for speeding up the search function?
> 
> AJAX is simply an easy description for a set of technologies. AJAX
> stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML and simply is the
> combination of XHTML, JavaScript, and XML using XMLhttprequest. This
> technology can be used to implement a lot of different features.

Thanks. I still don't know excactly what AJAX is ;-), but as far as I
understood from the web technologie point of view it seems to be a swiss
army knife. Let's see how DokuWiki could benefit from it. Pherhaps I
will learn something usefull. :-)

> > It makes me shudder when I hear DHTML. Long time ago I did a little
> > DHTML programming. At the end I gave it up because it was impossible to
> > create pages that run on all browsers.
> 
> Well, I hate to tell you this, but DokuWiki is currently a DHTML
> application. DHTML is simply the combination of HTML/XHTML, CSS, and a
> client-side scripting language such as JavaScript.

You are welcome :-) I don't know if there is a generally accepted
definition of DHTML but as I played around with "DHTML", the usual
understanding of "DHTML" was heavy Javascript using, dynamic graphic
effects like floating menues, animated and moving graphics, etc. And all
this on clients side without server support. No one knew about XML and
CSS was only an suspicous idea far from usable. What Dokuwiki does with
JavaScript (I beg your pardon in advance) is only peanuts. I would call
it 'adequate usage of Javascript', not 'DHTML' ;-)

At that time Microsoft and Netscape fought against eachother,
implemented a lot of incompatible features in their browsers and the
user stood inbetween. Not to speak of those lost souls useing the
Konqueror, as I usually did. All this made HTML and JavaScript
programming a mess. Since the collapse of Netscape and the generally
accepted world domination of Microsoft in the browser market, the usage
of those technologies might become more easy now, ... perhaps.

As long as we use open standards without proprietary parts and as long
as we have the choice, we can't be completely wrong. So lets see if AJAX
have what it takes to be the technologie of today. Don't forget the
option to disable AJAX :-)

  Best Regards
    Matthias



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