Developers from around the world logged in today via http://webcast.sys-con.com and enjoyed a high-level webinar from Ross Dargahi and Satish Dharmaraj devoted to AJAX, the technology whose name was coined just 7 months ago but which has in fact been available for a great deal longer, even though it is only today that it is picking up speed...fast.

Coined by Jesse James Garrett, what AJAX does was nonetheless already available to developers, via a 'poor man's remote procedure' (RPC), years ago. Ross Dargahi and Satish Dharmaraj explained that AJAX is a combination of technologies available in most modern browsers (Firefox, Netscape 7, IE5 and above, etc).

The webinar covered all the elements of AJAX, including XMLHttpRequest which was invented by Microsoft and has been available since IE4.0.

Those attending learned how AJAX enables the development of apps with "desktop richness" because round-trip calls aren't always being made to the server. As well as the pros of using AJAX, the cons were also discussed - such as the notorious so-called 'back button issue.'

Satish Dharmaraj is co-founder and CEO of Zimbra, the open-source startup that lured Scott Dietzen away from his former job as chief technology officer of BEA Systems. Based in San Mateo, CA, and founded in 2003 with a commitment to improving enterprise messaging and collaboration. Dharmaraj was formerly was vice president of messaging products at mobile software provider Openwave Systems.

Ross Dargahi, formerly director of product development, Openwave, and a co-founder of Zimbra, co-presented the webinar. At one point Dargahi predicted, in response to a SYS-CON Webinar attandee's question, in real time via the webinar IM system, that it wouldn't be too long now before someone devises an IDE specifically for AJAX.