AJAX and AFLAX
From Wildsong
AJAX
AJAX = "asynchronous javascript and xml"
- 'asynchronous' means the client can send requests to the server whenever it needs more data.
- 'javascript' means the client runs in any recent browser
- 'and' is a conjunction
- 'xml' is the communications protocol
The portal site for AJAX information: http://ajaxian.com/
AFLAX
AFLAX is like AJAX but uses FlashPlayer on the client as the scripting engine. Using FlashPlayer means you script in ActionScript instead of JavaScript, but if you're like me you won't notice the differences because they are so similar.
In theory it's not proprietary but in practice you will want to use Macromedia Studio as a development environment so you have spend money.
You really need FlashPlayer 8 to do AFLAX and that means waiting, since there is no Linux version yet.
Some cogent comments from an oreillynet blogger, especially from the peanut gallery, pros and cons.
