When Atlas split and became a CTP and a beta, I was one of the naysayers. I couldn’t believe what had been done; we had essentially been given the UpdatePanel. I was so upset that I decided that it was time to move out and look at other Ajax toolkits. So for last 6 months or so, I sojourned in the lands of Telerik and Yahoo (both of which are excellent toolkits). About 2 months ago (around the release of MS ASP.NET Ajax Extensions v1), I decided to take a closer look at the end result. While the main server controls that had been provided were the same, I began to look at the underlying architecture.
For instance HttpCompression of scripts is a pretty nice feature to have in the realm of Ajax. Also, I realized that, while the script model no longer has the TextBox or the Label or the ListView, the simpler model is actually highly effective. Last week I wrote a script-only splitter control with the MS Ajax Extensions in about a few hours (and no I have never built one before). I’ll be turning it into a server control and will be seeing if I can get it accepted in the Ajax Control Toolbox project. The process for writing extensions is a lot easier or at least that there are docs that really help you to wrap your head around this stuff (provided you have the background in everything else).
So despite the fact that the amount of server control in the MS Ajax Extensions seems a little light, the script model is (dare I say it) on par with the ubiquitous Prototype library. I applaud you guys on the MS Ajax Extensions team (sorry it took me so long).
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