This book is dedicated to making web applications look and act like desktop applications that run on your computer. As we advance into the Internet Age, the difference between the desktop and the Internet is going to keep diminishing.
One issue that up until now has divided desktop applications from browser-based applications is that in the browser, you usually have to wait for the whole page to refresh before you see any results. Want to buy a book online? Click the book and –flash– the shopping cart page appears. Want to check out? Click the checkout button and –flash– that page appears. Then it’s on to –flash– the credit card
information page.
All that flashing gives online applications a very different feel from that of applications on your computer. The idea behind Ajax is to get rid of all the flashing page refreshes that plague the online experience. With Ajax, you can connect to a web server behind the scenes, download data, and then display that data in the current page in a browser, all without refreshing the page.
