Hooray for Atlas!

Whe I first started using ASP.NET I was intrigued by the concept of server controls. I thought, wow, we can lose all that client-side script that is so tricky to write and debug. It quickly became clear the model was flawed. You really, really can't abandon client-side technologies when you're creating web pages. The user experience is just too disjointed and sluggish. Sure, MS intriduced Smart Navigation, to try to reduce some of the issues intriduced by postbacks, but it was always just a sticking plaster over a deeper problem. To write a decent site, you had to pretty much abandon server controls, viewstate, and so on, and pull out your DHTML and JavaScript reference.

I was always really annoyed that MS completely ignored client-side scripting - there's just no real tool support.

I've already commented on AJAX on this blog. I'm really pleased to see that MS are planning a new suite of tools & techs - codenamed Atlas - built on ASP.NET 2.0, to support client-side web development. You can read about it on Scott Guthrie's blog.