There’s been a lot of hype lately around Microsoft’s Atlas Project the past few days. For those unaware, this is Microsoft’s promise of delivering components for enabling Ajax solutions for Web developers. They promise it will be part of ASP.NET 2.0 with special server-side components and a client-side JavaScript library providing all kinds of functionality.

I don’t know why everyone is so excited about this, it’s not like Microsoft hasn’t given us client-side components before. Anyone remember the WebService behavior? Of course, the security updates to Internet Explorer regarding cross-domain communication pretty much rendered that useless.

In any event, even though Atlas will work cross-browser (allegedly), why would anyone switch from their custom-made solution to Atlas? Frameworks are notoriously difficult to make because you’re trying to solve general use cases instead of specific ones. This is why I’ve never sat down to try to write one of the JavaScript libraries that seem to get popular every once in a while. I’m a much bigger fan of small components that can easily be implemented into any page rather than entire frameworks that you are required to use to get certain functionality. I’ll be sticking with my own stuff for now.

Disclaimer: Any viewpoints and opinions expressed in this article are those of Nicholas C. Zakas and do not, in any way, reflect those of my employer, my colleagues, Wrox Publishing, O'Reilly Publishing, or anyone else. I speak only for myself, not for them.

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