So saying “AJAX is expensive” (or that it’s cheap) is like saying “A mountain bike is slower than a battle tank” (or that it’s faster). The truth depends on what you’re doing with it. In the case of web sites, it depends on how many fetches you do and where you have to go to get the data to satisfy them.
I would start with the above, move on to “The Real AJAX Upside“, and then call yourself a better, more informed hacker because of it. (Or a better, more informed Mort, if in fact such a term is more appropriate in your particular case (would you admit it if it was?))
what do you mean by "more informed Mort"?
Hi Sam,
While I can't really suggest I know the exact definition of a Mort, to me the phrase refers to the generalized notion that there are programmers who program with pure and simple joy, as this is what helps make them feel complete; their life destiny so to speak. When 5p.m. rolls around, if they are in the middle of writing code, these are the folks who look surprised when someone asks "aren't you going home?" and give you a look like "Huh?" and then turn back to their screen and keyboard.
On the flip-side you have programmers who can program, but its not their passion. When 5pm rolls around each day, if they're in the middle of writing code, or working through a problem related to code, etc... they have no problem stopping and going home.
Both folks are good people... One is just passionate about writing code, the other is passionate about something else all together, and sees writing code as a day job, and whatever else it is that drives her/him to get out of bed each day as his/her passion.
With the above definition I *think* Mort refers to the word Mortal as in "When it comes to writing code, compared to Sam, Joe is a mere mortal." So in other words, Sam is seen as some sort of programming God, where as Joe prefers to invoke his "God-like" powers on something besides code.
And with that last parapgraph, comes the disclaimer: I have no idea if this is where the word actually comes from... I just know what it refers to in general.