We’re pleased to announce that Pragmatic Ajax: A Web 2.0 Primer is complete. We finished the manuscript this week, and the last beta will be pushed out this weekend. Then, its off to the copy editer to find all the spelling and grammatical mistakes that the Apple spellchecker missed. Finally, as fast as the print shop can churn them out (imagine picking up two cinder blocks and trying to run across the deep end of a pool and you get the idea) the book will be released in paperback.

We’re pretty sure the book has something to offer every reader. But if you are looking for a shorthand cheatsheet of what WE learned while writing it, here you go:

1. Microsoft believes that everything has to look exactly like them. Witness their introduction of namespaces, customized inheritance syntax and (shudder) interfaces to JavaScript. I’ll rant more about the interface thing later, but suffice it to say, does this look like the kind of JavaScript you want to write?
2. In 12 months, you’ll never hear the word Ajax again unless you are cleaning your kitchen or taking a survey course in Greek mythology. But you won’t stop hearing the phrase “Web 2.0” until the next bubble bursts.
3. .rjs templates in Rails are a really really cool feature, but using them on a real project is a crap shoot right now because they tend to explode layout rendering at random times. I’m stoked about the feature, but I’ll come back from the edge for now while it settles down.
4. Writing a book about an emerging technology is hard hard hard. Here’s a list of things that changed dramatically while we were writing the book:
   • The PHP library NAJAX changed its name, and all its sources, to XOAD.
   • The Dojo framework changed the way its effects are run, removing the notion of having to “hit play” at the end of creating one.
   • Bugs were fixed all over the place in Prototype, Script.aculo.us, Dojo, DWR, and Ajax.NET.
   • Ajax.NET shut down and was incorporated into BorgWorX.
   • Apple introduced a new DOM inspector into WebKit.
   • Rails went 1.0 and introduced .rjs templates.
   • Google Maps became local.google.com.
   • And probably a lot more I’m forgetting…

In all, it was a great experience, and I’m really looking forward to seeing the final release in print. If for no other reason than to have a book with my name and a big sword on the cover.