4 ms·

They did it by ironic accident. Bill Gates wanted their browser to be the best, but also wanted it not good enough to replace desktop apps. However the right

by btilly 8y ago

They did it by ironic accident. Bill Gates wanted their browser to be the best, but also wanted it not good enough to replace desktop apps. However the right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing. The Outlook team was told to make a web version. They got the IE team to add XMLHttpRequest for their use, everyone implemented what they needed to, then went home and forgot about it. Then Google recognized what the feature allowed, and used it in gmail and maps. The rest of the internet said, "Wait, what, you can DO that?" Studied it, popularized the technique as AJAX and the rest is history.

sdegutis 8y ago
This origin story of XMLHttpRequest being an afterthought explains why the class name has inconsistent capitalization which interestingly enough I never noticed until now.
- amyjess 8y ago
  Many style guides for CamelCase recommend not writing acronyms in all caps past a certain length. It's possible that Microsoft's style guide at the time set three characters as the limit.
- btilly 8y ago
  You can find verification of it in the various references provided in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12067185/why-is-it-called-xmlhttprequest https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12067185/why-is-it-calle.... In particular https://web.archive.org/web/20170424220609/http://www.alexhopmann.com/xmlhttp.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20170424220609/http://www.alexho... is a snapshot of an explanation from the person who actually created the feature.
tokyodude 8y ago
Gmail was not even close the the first Ajax based email not by MS. Oddpost which later became Yahoo mail (Yahoo bought them to upgrade their mail) preceded Gmail by a few years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddpost https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddpost
- btilly 8y ago
  That may be, but the original articles that I saw making AJAX the new hotness referred to gmail and Google maps. Furthermore I remember gmail's keyboard shortcuts being a shock to a lot of people. Me included.

by btilly 8y ago

sdegutis 8y ago

This origin story of XMLHttpRequest being an afterthought explains why the class name has inconsistent capitalization which interestingly enough I never noticed until now.

amyjess 8y ago
Many style guides for CamelCase recommend not writing acronyms in all caps past a certain length. It's possible that Microsoft's style guide at the time set three characters as the limit.
btilly 8y ago
You can find verification of it in the various references provided in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12067185/why-is-it-called-xmlhttprequest https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12067185/why-is-it-calle.... In particular https://web.archive.org/web/20170424220609/http://www.alexhopmann.com/xmlhttp.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20170424220609/http://www.alexho... is a snapshot of an explanation from the person who actually created the feature.

tokyodude 8y ago

Gmail was not even close the the first Ajax based email not by MS. Oddpost which later became Yahoo mail (Yahoo bought them to upgrade their mail) preceded Gmail by a few years. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddpost https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oddpost

btilly 8y ago
That may be, but the original articles that I saw making AJAX the new hotness referred to gmail and Google maps. Furthermore I remember gmail's keyboard shortcuts being a shock to a lot of people. Me included.