Ajax all the buzz at Eclipse conference

Source: SearchWebServices

Summary:
Santa Clara - Ajax isn't the most prominent technology on display at EclipseCon 2006 this week but it's there sort of sneaking around the corners of the Santa Clara Convention Center like an unexpected guest at a party.

t may seem odd for a conference drawing upwards of 1,500 mostly Java coders talking mostly about Web service applications to not be focusing more openly on the hottest technology idea of the past year, but the Eclipse Foundation is just getting to know Ajax as it mulls over proposals for bringing it into the framework.

One of those proposals comes from IBM, the Eclipse progenitor and major contributor of expertise and money. When John Kellerman, IBM strategy manager for Eclipse Initiatives, is asked if there is room for Ajax in Eclipse, he says, "The answer is yes, most definitively yes." But having worked with Eclipse since 1999 when it was just a gleam in Big Blue's eye, he explains that the Ajax proposals now being considered are very new, dating back only to the first of this year.

The main IBM proposal is the Ajax Tools Framework, which Kellerman said has drawn interest from other vendors including BEA Systems Inc. and Oracle Corp.