Recent Blog Posts
Blogs ยป Archive for April 10th, 2006
W3C works to standardize XMLHttpRequest
The World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) new Web API Working Group has released a working draft of the official specification for the XMLHttpRequest object, which is at the heart of AJAX.
The XMLHttpRequest object, which enables JavaScript code to make requests to the server and process the responses, is supported in most current browsers, including Mozilla/Firefox, Safari, Opera, and the upcoming Internet Explorer 7. Internet Explorer 5/6 offers the functionality of XMLHttpRequest through an ActiveX control of the same name.
According to the draft, the first version of the specification aims to document the cross-browser functionality that is currently available only. Features that only exist in one browser will not be included in the specification, nor will any new features. In the few cases where the various browsers disagree on how a given feature should work, the specification will describe the “most correct” behaviour, as determined by the spec’s authors. What should result is useful documentation for web developers of just what they can rely on and use today. At the same time, the document will provide a target that will enable new implementations to ensure interoperability.
Prior to this W3C spec, the only vendor-neutral specification for just what XMLHttpRequest …
Sun Developer Days 2006: Day Two
The second day of Sun’s Developer Days 2006 conference in Melbourne last week was a similar mixed bag to the first. Be sure to read my coverage of day one if you missed it.
Before the day’s sessions began in earnest, Sun organiser David Coldrick got up to plug two useful resources for Java developers to keep up with the latest developments between Developer Days conferences: The Java Posse podcast (which I highly recommend as well!), and javapassion.com, which I have covered in this blog before.
Building Great Games for the Mobile World, Chuk Munn Lee (Sun)
Having done some work on mobile games already, I was hoping for some insight into the technical issues that face game developers on this platform: device-specific API fragmentation, application size and processing speed limits, inconsistent control methods, and more. What we got instead was a non-technical overview about the pros and cons of developing games for mobile handsets as compared to the PC- and console-based game platforms.
In brief, Java Micro Edition (ME) is a lightweight platform that can let you produce a fully-realized game for millions of potential users with as little as one man-month of development time. …
Sponsored Links
Download sample chapters of any of our popular books.
