May 11, 2011

Airports and AJAX

Back in school, I remember having a chapter in English titled 'Poets and Pancakes'. At that moment, the title was quite a debatable topic, but I never knew (then) I'd title a blog post in a similar manner.

Although you're familiar with airports, I'm pretty sure you dunno what AJAX is...



So let me start with a brief intro of AJAX. It stands for Asynchronous Javascript And XML. I won't go into the technical details, but just for your understanding, it is a technology which gives the same results but with the flow of comparatively lesser amount of information, which lessens the burden on a server, and of course increases the speed of browsing.

The first time I used AJAX was during the revamping of the NSS site of IIT-R, back in January (precisely the 26th, I know, Republic Day, right?). I got up at around 12 and then was forced by a friend of mine who had already completed the design to start working on it. To my astonishment, it tuned out to be not that tough(but it's tricky)! Since then I've used it in two different instances, first for Ex-Nihilo (that's a website making competition of Cognizance '11, the Tech fest of IIT-R) and then in my app for IMG (refer to the previous article). Even after using it three times SUCCESSFULLY, I still maintain that it has the ability to get to you as the debugging in AJAX is worse than anything one can possibly imagine!

But hey, this post is also supposed to be about airports, isn't it? Well, right now, I am sitting in Terminal 1D of Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi at 3 am. Reason? I'm going home and my flight is at 5.35 am. What am I doing(no prizes up for grabs)? AJAX! Actually, I was just thinking about it... but then, the fact that airport and AJAX sound similar (alliteration again!) struck me and I decided to share my AJAX experience with you.

Still not convinced that AJAX and airports are related? Well, 'Poets and Pancakes' didn't have a convincing end either. And I'm sure I'd have skipped the question of justification of the title had it been asked in the exam. I guess all documents with such intellectual titles (in my case, I'd say it's a 'transcendental title') finally make the reader believe that these terms were never related!

Liked this post? Have any suggestions? Just let me know. Feel free to comment below!

7 responses:

Ashwini Khare said...

"AJAX and Airport sound similar" .... WTF??

sneha said...

but poets and pancakes were related to the same studio; wherever there is a poet, there is also the use of pancakes...but its not like evryone uses AJAX while waiting on the airport!!!

Shaumik Daityari said...

@Ashwini- They DO sound similar!

@sneha- there's no pancakes in case of all poets, is it! only the poets at the studio, right?
in this case, it's me (and hopefully other web designers who are in love with AJAX) who think of AJAX at the Airport :P

abhilekhmukherjeein said...

Good logical ending sam...hehe

Shaumik Daityari said...

@abhilekh- thanks

@sneha- even abhilekh believes poets and pancakes was an 'out of the world' title

abhilekhmukherjeein said...

Yes... I do. Afterall it isn't mandatory that every chapter should have a logically fitting and suiting title. 'Poets and Pancakes' and 'Airpots and AJAX', though far from each other, but they do serve the meaning of 'alliteration' somewhere or the other!

Shaumik Daityari said...

and alliteration is ehat i always try to follow :D

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