Ajax: The Definitive Guide

Chapter 1. Reinventing the Web

Back in 1996, the Web was incredibly exciting, but not a whole lot was actually happening on web pages. Programming a web page in 1996 often meant working with a static page, and maybe a bit of scripting helped manage a form on that page. That scripting usually came in the form of a Perl or C Common Gateway Interface (CGI) script, and it handled basic things such as authorization, page counters, search queries, and advertising. The most dynamic features on the pages were the updating of a counter or time of day, or the changing of an advertising banner when a page reloaded. Applets were briefly the rage for supplying a little chrome to your site, or maybe some animated GIF images to break the monotony of text on the page. Thinking back now, the Web at that time was really a boring place to surf.

But look at what we had to use back then. HTML 2.0 was the standard, with HTML 3.2 right around the corner. You pretty much had to develop for Internet Explorer 3.0 or Netscape Navigator 2.1. You were lucky if someone was browsing with a resolution of 800 × 600, as 640 × 480 was still the norm. It was a challenging time to make anything that felt truly cool or creative.

Since then, tools, standards, hardware technology, and browsers have changed so much that it is difficult to draw a comparison between what the Web was then and what it is today. Ajax’s emergence signals the reinvention of the Web, and we should take a look at just how much has changed.

Tip

If you ...