Atlas impressed

After reviewing the documentation on Atlas (a.k.a the .NET 2.0 Ajax libraries), I found a lot of the statements in the documentation regarding JavaScript misleading. While JavaScript may not be object-oriented or contain a robust exception handling framework, it is object-based and version 1.5 includes try/catch blocks that can throw any kind of object up the stack as well as runtime exceptions. Also the implication that the Atlas client script library introduces events and behaviors to the DHTML world is totally off the mark. And while the Atlas client script library may provide a more robust API to these capabilities than existed previously, if these capabilities were not built into JavaScript to a lesser degree in the first place it would have been impossible to build the Atlas library as it stands today. That said, the Atlas Client Script Llibrary itself is very impressive and should be fairly easy to port over to other web applications that do not use a .NET architecture. Not that I am suggesting that anyone do that. I wouldn't do something like that. Not me. No way.

Additionally, I did find quite a lot of articles on some of the interesting things going on under Atlas's hood in the course of my review. So if you are curious, here is an article on the XmlHttpRequest from Apple's Developer Connection (who knew?), another on AJAX courtesy of Simon Willison (I knew), and yet another on JSON via Dare Obasanjo (a personal hero far beyond my ability to know). JSON is a lightweight XML alternative that allows developers to express objects in a functional construction like syntax.