Once you get over the inevitable hype curve, you realize that Ajax is just another tool in the developer's tool box. In particular, it's a great panacea for implementing complex, adaptive, data driven Web forms. Instead of managing a complex state machine with interdependent server and client side scripting, you just modify the form in place as the user provides more data. That alone makes Ajax worthwhile. Sure, the new graphical Ajax driven interfaces are fun to play with but at then end of the day it's all about managing data efficiently. That's where Ajax shines. It helps you achieve a nice, tight, minimal implementation while avoiding abstruse and convoluted code.

First, let me say that while AJAX is fun, it is not always a best solution. Programming web applications with Ruby on Rails is insanely easy once you learn the conventions. You have to get a feel for the Ruby language first. Then you understand why things are done the way they are. First, hooking up to a database is easy. You add your username and password to the generated database.yml file. Then you develop models in a structured application directory. There are many helpers to easily allow you to model complex relationships, and ActiveRecord will convert the data into objects. I have programmed in PHP and Java, and I tried to learn Hibernate. It is just too complex. Active Record says good bye to boring SQL and hello to OO-style data access. Then, as if that wasn`t cool enough, throw in controllers, actions, and views. Add one line hooks and filters to easily check that a user is logged in or to log web activity. RoR is an amazing and simple framework. It is very true that it`s a new way to program and looks at conventions, but it`s what we have been preaching for the longest time in Software Engineering class, follow best practices. Some amazing web developers and a growing community are pouring great ideas into this project. I will agree with you that the jury is still out for AJAX and best uses of it, but the Prototype Javascript framework has great cross-browser support and that`s why so many web frameworks use it. Even better, Prototype creator Sam created code so you can type easy ruby and have it sent over as javascript. Delete an element on the page? page.remove `elementid`. Simple. Anyway, I understand that it takes a bit of learning to really utilize RoR, but the time saved is money earned, and RoR has internationalization. It could handle your banking app, and the code base could easily be organized. For more on the ease of development, you should see Active Records Migrations and Testing. Some really cool best practices here. Cheers! Lee.

In most cases I'm a patient and tolerant person. Once you get to know me, I'm easy to get along with, occasionally complex, but not very often. My patience and tolerance has pretty much gone out the window in the last week or so. It all stems from two technologies: Ruby On Rails (RoR) and AJAX.

In most cases I'm a patient and tolerant person. Once you get to know me, I'm easy to get along with, occasionally complex, but not very often. My patience and tolerance has pretty much gone out the window in the last week or so. It all stems from two technologies: Ruby On Rails (RoR) and AJAX.

I think that it is a myth that you are tied to rails conventions. Dig around in the config directory sometime. You can override most rails conventions with your own if you want to.

Jason, I'm afraid I have to disagree with you on this occasion. Ajax and RoR are two of the most exciting and compelling things I've seen on the development scene in almost half a decade. The cautionary tale of Python is an appropriate one but it's never a language that looked very good under scrutiny. Ruby, however, very much does. I think you can safely bet heavily on both Ruby and RoR today for a number of solid reasons.

Dion Hinchcliffe
Editor-in-Chief
Web 2.0 Journal

In most cases I'm a patient and tolerant person. Once you get to know me, I'm easy to get along with, occasionally complex, but not very often. My patience and tolerance has pretty much gone out the window in the last week or so. It all stems from two technologies: Ruby On Rails (RoR) and AJAX.

RMX, I agree with what you say.

I've been playing with Rails again over the last seven days and I stepped out of Rails conventions my development ground to a halt. That's no fault of anyone, it's just a case of that's how it is and you have to adapt.

Following on from my article I have now seen (and verified) that Ajax does work on the PocketPC.

http://ajaxian.com/archives/2005/11/ajax_on_the_poc.html

Plus it gives a mention that Opera have implemented it in their mobile edition browser.

You write "I don't jump on these things easily, just like I didn't jump on Python. "

Yeah.. and that newfangled Structured Programming just might catch on too; and those dangerous toys like Object Oriented and Functional programming are just so far out there they'll need decades to settle down before I'd jump on that train.

More seriously, Ruby and Rails are the right tools for some jobs (database-backed web apps) and not others (legacy backends that don't follow the rails conventions).

AJAX is the right tool for some applications (intranet applications where you have control over the browser) and not others (general web apps where devices like cell phones are an increasing share of the users).

And neither are the final solution to end all progrmaming languages. Just as dynamic languages with very rich OO features(Python/Ruby) are displacing the less rich static OO languages (Java/C#) and those in turn had largely replaced the previous generation of hybrid OO languages (C++/Objective C) - future languages will bring even more developer efficiency and displace Python and Ruby.