I freaking hate AJAX

There was a time when I was GLAD javascript was gettin used less and less as a core script langugage. It was just so darn confusing and it was so browser dependent. But it seems these new fangled AJAX and the hype around it is gonna make it ever so popular again. AJAX isnt even new but merely a collection of exisitng technologies yet the marketing put them like its sum new toy.

AJAX on the frontend is neat, just like LAMP is neat on the backend; but I'd hate my life if the only language available for web programming was php. Thankfully we have plenty of alternatives; Perl, Python (ew), Ruby, others. I think in time we'll see alternatives for the J in AJAX. In the meantime we can avoid having to use this sucky language as much as possible by having libraries in our favourite web programming language to generate js code automatically.

You're right, it's not new, but until recently it wasn't well understood how to use these technologies to make cooler web apps. Giving a name to something is an important step towards making it possible to communicate meaningfully about it. This, incidentally, is why Design Patterns was so popular; it didn't bring anything new to the table, it just gave names to things, which enabled people to think and talk about them.