Update Ajax glossary entry

[wbamberg]

This is part of a fix for #14157, maybe.

Mostly what it does is stop the entry tying Ajax to XMLHttpRequest, and make the point that it is a technique not a specific technology. Maybe it could make the point more strongly?

Maybe it should also suggest that Ajax is a bit of an anachronistic term these days?

[github-actions]

Preview URLs

• /en-US/docs/Glossary/AJAX

(comment last updated: 2023-11-20 00:24:15)

[hamishwillee]

FWIW

Mostly what it does is stop the entry tying Ajax to XMLHttpRequest, and make the point that it is a technique not a specific technology. Maybe it could make the point more strongly?

I think what you have done here is fine.

Maybe it should also suggest that Ajax is a bit of an anachronistic term these days?

If possible.

Perhaps append to the first paragraph something like.

The practices described as Ajax are now so widely used that it has become uncommon to refer to a site as "using Ajax".
It is far more common to refer to those sites that do not use dynamic techniques as "static sites".

[wbamberg]

FWIW

Mostly what it does is stop the entry tying Ajax to XMLHttpRequest, and make the point that it is a technique not a specific technology. Maybe it could make the point more strongly?

I think what you have done here is fine.

Maybe it should also suggest that Ajax is a bit of an anachronistic term these days?

If possible.

Perhaps append to the first paragraph something like.

The practices described as Ajax are now so widely used that it has become uncommon to refer to a site as "using Ajax". It is far more common to refer to those sites that do not use dynamic techniques as "static sites".

I'm not sure this is exactly a replacement though, because Ajax is a client-side technique, and I think of "static" as mostly meaning that the server always serves a static page, rather than, say, dynamically constructing a page out of a database. That is, a site can be non-static but also non-Ajax. I'm not sure what the kids call Ajax these days.

[hamishwillee]

I'm not sure this is exactly a replacement though, because Ajax is a client-side technique, and I think of "static" as mostly meaning that the server always serves a static page, rather than, say, dynamically constructing a page out of a database. That is, a site can be non-static but also non-Ajax.

You're right. There are client side libraries that use these techniques to dynamically update the HTML.

I'm not sure what the kids call Ajax these days.

The point I was hoping to capture is that they don't call it anything because dynamic update of content using javascript is business as usual.

I think it is worth saying that but leave for you to consider if you want to find something that works. Will approve so you can merge if you decide it isn't worth it.

[wbamberg]

OK, added a note as we discussed: 1b1a213.

[hamishwillee]

Thanks! Pleased to see you making Ajax into a footnote of history.