"COMET" may become the newest "AJAX" buzzword

a !
http://search-engines-web.com/

http://www.irishdev.com/NewsArticle.aspx?id=2166

http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=104079

....Comet applications can deliver data to the client at any time, not only in response to user input. The data is delivered over a single, previously-opened connection. This approach reduces the latency for data delivery significantly.

The architecture relies on a view of data which is event driven on both sides of the HTTP connection. Engineers familiar with SOA or message oriented middleware will find this diagram to be amazingly familiar. The only substantive change is that the endpoint is the browser.

While Comet is similar to Ajax in that it’s asynchronous, applications that implement the Comet style can communicate state changes with almost negligible latency. This makes it suitable for many types of monitoring and multi-user collaboration applications which would otherwise be difficult or impossible to handle in a browser without plugins.

A short list of example applications includes:

LeadingStoker

Will Comet not have the memory issues that plague AJAX? Because having 30+MB browser windows is just too much (especially if you have 30 open).

I despise AJAX for robbing my system of resources much worse than leaky DHTML.

a !
http://search-engines-web.com/

These are technologies of the Near Future - - Hardware and Firmware will also be advancing.

Just imagine the PC by the end of this Decade.

harumscarum
out of memory

sweet another buzzword for venture capital.

From a technical standpoint how do you push a message from the server to the client web browser? Do you just have some type of listener js function?

For the browser junkies on here has there been any talk on redesigning the way the browser loads a web page? The stop,refresh and back buttons were designed when a web page was a single unit but now a web page is a container for multiple units.

Cornelius Ellsonpeter

Comet. Ajax. What's with naming everything after cleaning products?

UlsterFry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_fry

Cornelius Ellsonpeter wrote:
Comet. Ajax. What's with naming everything after cleaning products?

lol.. in the UK we also have 'Flash' Smiley

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

UlsterFry wrote:
Cornelius Ellsonpeter wrote:Comet. Ajax. What's with naming everything after cleaning products?

lol.. in the UK we also have 'Flash'

Not forgetting the "Jif / *.GIF" thing as well. (Before they renamed it "Cif")

Cybermagellan
Live for nothing, or die for everything

A short list of example applications includes:

GMail’s GTalk integration (CRAP)
Jot Live (NEVER USED)
Renkoo (NEVER USED)
cgi:irc (NEVER USED)
Meebo (UNSECURE CRAP)

In part...who cares? Perfect AJAX and it wont matter.

a !
http://search-engines-web.com/

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1961280,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

Microsoft, known for its clever code names, came within hours of naming its Asynchronous JavaScript and XML tool set after a cleansing product that is a competitor to AJAX.

Speaking on a panel at the AJAX Experience conference here, Brad Abrams, group product manager for the Microsoft Atlas team, said the Microsoft technology now known as Atlas came within hours of being called Comet.
"Hours before we announced Atlas to the world we changed the name," Abrams said. "The original name was Comet, but we decided against it at the last minute."
AJAX experts tackle security and the Microsoft rivalry. Click here to read more.
Abrams later said the development team chose the name Comet, but the marketing group involved with the effort nixed the name before it could be announced. He would not talk about the back story.

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

a ! wrote:
Abrams later said the development team chose the name Comet, but the marketing group involved with the effort nixed the name before it could be announced. He would not talk about the back story.

Once again, the developer's creativity is stifled by the legal department.

Michael Griffiths
Fatalism.

Cybermagellan wrote:
Meebo (UNSECURE CRAP)

I hate to burst your bubble, but https://www.meebo.com does exist.

You might not like the interface/etc, but it's certainly not wholly insecure....

Michael Griffiths
Fatalism.

W3bbo wrote:

a ! wrote: Abrams later said the development team chose the name Comet, but the marketing group involved with the effort nixed the name before it could be announced. He would not talk about the back story.

Once again, the developer's creativity is stifled by the legal department.

ATLAS is a considerably better name for a web framework than COMET.

spoofnozzle
Bite my shiney metal a$$!

a ! wrote:
While Comet is similar to Ajax in that it’s asynchronous, applications that implement the Comet style can communicate state changes with almost negligible latency.

WTF? -- Does it implement a different internet ??

W3bbo
The Master of Baiters

spoofnozzle wrote:
a ! wrote:While Comet is similar to Ajax in that it’s asynchronous, applications that implement the Comet style can communicate state changes with almost negligible latency.

WTF? -- Does it implement a different internet ??

I'm guessing Comet prefers preemptive callbacks compared to on-user-action callbacks that most AJAX apps do?

Say goodbye to small IIS logfiles then.

PerfectPhase
"This is not war, this is pest control!" - Dalek to Cyberman

As far as I can tell it gives up on the whole open connection, send request, get reply, close connection, instead favouring open a more 'classical' socket and streaming mesages in both directions for the life of the page.

There is some babble about how the feature packs for windows mobile implement message push over long running http connections, if you can still call it http, on the microsoft site.

Sampy
This will be the sixth time we have destroyed it and we have become exceedingly efficient at it

RPC over HTTP?

You use HTTP to start the connection then you just drop the pretense and use the socket normally. I use this to connect outlook at home to my work email.

Maurits
AKA Matthew van Eerde

Sampy wrote:
You use HTTP to start the connection then you just drop the pretense and use the socket normally

<shudder>

If RPC can work over a single port, why bother with HTTP? You can tell any service to listen on any port, in principle.

EDIT: Using an HTTP socket "normally" to carry RPC is a paradox. This is going to knock hell out of stateful-packet-inspecting firewalls. It borders on abuse.

spoofnozzle
Bite my shiney metal a$$!

W3bbo wrote:
I'm guessing Comet prefers preemptive callbacks compared to on-user-action callbacks that most AJAX apps do?

My take on this... (read: 2c worth).

Atlas is just the MS framework for developing AJAX apps.

http://atlas.asp.net/docs/Default.aspx

There are some nifty controls that allow you to "ajaxify" existing apps... but there does not appear to be any major departure from the AJAX concept or http standards... rather, its a means to provide standard oop libraries for ajax, that can be used at both the client and server ends.

&quot;COMET&quot; may become the newest &quot;AJAX&quot; buzzword