Coding for Different Platforms

Developing an Ajax based application has always been challenging for most developers. Combining JavaScript with other technologies is very challenging primarily because familiarity with JavaScript is scarce.

Because of the popularity of Ajax and the need to learn it for properly building an application, JavaScript has slowly been embraced. Although today JavaScript is not the world’s most popular programming technique, familiarity is increasing as more developers are manually coding to properly build an Ajax and JavaScript application.

However, there is still a challenge for JavaScript developers. There is always the lure of building an application manually and run it through different technologies that automate some of the functions.

Frameworks, libraries and even browsers (Chrome) are easing Ajax based development so that more client-side functions will be implemented. Of course, this is not a bad thing since the ultimate end in building an application is to have users enjoy the application without having a hard time understanding them. Through these tools, building an application will always be easier.

On the other hand, there is a growing difficult for every developer who opted to use tools to help them build an Ajax based application. Even though there is globalization of most of the functions in JavaScript, its interpretation in different platforms such as frameworks is different. That means the manual coding of JavaScript will never be implemented in the same way when they are run in different frameworks.

The cause of the difference of interpretation of frameworks is based on their thrusts. Frameworks and other platforms wanted to focus on certain functionalities to make them different from other platforms.  The end result is a platform with functionalities that could only be implemented when the developer is familiar with its coding structure.

Developers who wanted to use a platform have to carefully examine the documentation for proper implementation. This also has repercussions on developers who wanted to build mash-ups wherein they would require two or more frameworks in building an Ajax based application. There is also the question of browser incompatibility which even provides additional confusion especially if the developer plans to build a mash-up.

There is actually a way on how to deal with incompatibility problem. One of the main reasons why platforms, libraries and frameworks change their interpretation on certain coding is based on the browsers. That is why they opted to build browser-agnostic functions but would still react based on the specific browser.

Instead of being browser centric, the coding could be developed into version centric. That means the focal point in building an application is based on the function version itself and not on the browser.

Another solution is to stay away from the platforms altogether and build specific version of application on a separate folder so that it could be called when it detects the specific browser.

But these solutions could easily sacrifice the speed of the application since the application has to figure out the versions or the folder for a specific browser. For that reason, developers always have to choose between speed and efficiency when building an Ajax based application with a platform.