InfoWorld Review of Backbase Ajax Framework

Jouk Pleiter points me to the InfoWorld Review of the Backbase Rich Internet App framework.

From the InfoWorld reivew:

This impressive toolkit provides a mature, sophisticated collection of widgets for adding features normally expected in native applications to Web pages. The system uses its own extension of HTML and XML known as BXML, sure to please methodical coders looking for a clear replacement to the cross-browser complexity of modern JavaScript.

Still haven’t played around with their framework yet, but this caught my eye:

Backbase rich clients can be easily combined with Java & J2EE, .NET & ASP.NET, XML, XSLT and XPath. The .NET Server Edition offers drag-and-drop RIA development with Visual Studio.NET. Plug-ins for Eclipse and DreamWeaver are also available. The XML Server Edition can be installed on both Java platforms and on Microsoft Windows (Native .NET Application).

I’ve been playing around with Ajax support in Ruby on Rails. Even though things are drastically simplified, you still have to be somewhat of a JavaScript / app framework maven to really nail an Ajax app like Backpack has done, not to mention Gmail.

So … like, don’t expect to make GMail in a long weekend in your dorm room.

Unless you’re Paul Graham … or write your app in Lisp. In that case, it’ll take a few hours. Just use a few lexical closures and a macro. (* I kid because I love!)

More Links:
ZapNote: Ajax-based rich internet app