While Ajax's popularity is still due more to hype than to the number of actual shipping products, developers sometimes contrast Ajax with the more traditional Java EE-based development models and tools. In response to one such post, Coach Wei recently took issue with those who would like J2EE development to resemble Ajax development. In a blog entry, Thank God - Java EE Is Not Like Ajax, he points out that:

Java EE is here, stable, robust, has been powering thousands of mission critical business applications and has enabled an entire generation of software companies, products, developers and an entire eco-system that is based on open standards and open architecture. All these are because Java EE is not like Ajax...

Which aspect of Ajax that we really want Java EE to be like?

• The difficulty in developing Ajax code?
• The difficulty in maintaining Ajax code?
• The extreme fragile nature of Ajax code?
• The extremely fragmented nature of Ajax support from different browsers? Even the same browser does not necessarily offer the same support between different versions. I have spent two weeks to make AjaxWord to work on Internet Explorer 6, though it was fairly tested on IE 4 and IE 5 a few years ago.
• The immaturity of Ajax technology (and hence the extremely slow rate of reaching maturity given that the technology was developed almost ten years ago)?

Coach Wei's post outlines what he thinks Ajax could learn from J2EE. What do you think J2EE could learn from Ajax?