AJAX support in Java?
Jurgen Van Oosterwijck mentions in his post that CNN is reporting on Sun’s inclusion of JavaScript in Java. Of course it is more accurate to say that Java will have scripting support, with JavaScript just being one of the supported languages.
What really got me though was that if you read the article, you will see this paragraph:
Using Java, a robust programming language, to output JavaScript seems like overkill. Part of the reason JavaScript is so popular is that you don’t need a computer-science degree to use it to create simple applications.
Huh? Who said anything about using Java to output JavaScript? To top it off, to say that you can use JavaScript to “create simple applications” is also a long shot. Depending on your definition of what an application is, you can’t create apps at all with JavaScript. Well, unless you use Java (or something like Rhino) as the JavaScript engine.
Reports like that clearly show the ignorance of the media. Surely they have some tech guy that can review what they are saying to make sure it is even mildly accurate. To say there is “AJAX support” in Java just makes me want to go “Huh??” AJAX is client side and nothing to do with scripting in Java. OK, you go split hairs here and say that you could AJAX functionality with Java, but you wouldn’t use JavaScript to do it. Developers are definitely smart enough to know that the inclusion of scripting support in core Java is not going to be a Java killer, it is only an enhancement.
I guess in the end it comes down to marketing. Some middle manager will read a report like that and push for more Java stuff because it supports that way cool JavaScript and AJAX things that (s)he keeps reading about. As long as it keeps us all employed 
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