This presentation covers JavaScript from the perspective of an Ajax programmer. We assume that you may be using an Ajax toolkit, but still need to be able to read, modify, and test the JavaScript code in your application. You will learn the common idioms of JavaScript by looking at working code from the Ajax toolkits themselves.

All Ajax programmers need to know JavaScript. Toolkits will do some of the work for you, but your own JavaScript will differentiate your applications from others. A reading knowledge of JavaScript is also necessary when selecting an Ajax framework, and for testing and debugging applications.

We'll go straight to the interesting parts of JavaScript programming:

* Prototype-based inheritance
* Functional style
* Dynamic evaluation
* In-browser testing

We'll demonstrate these concepts using popular Ajax frameworks such as Dojo, Prototype, script.aculo.us.

Learn to simplify Ajax development with Prototype through a series of real-world examples. Along the way, learn to code in Prototype's modern JavaScript style, taking advantage of Prototype's extensions to JavaScript's object model

Prototype deserves its fame for Ajax support, and for easy integration with the Rails platform. In this presentation, you will learn to simplify Ajax development with Prototype as we work through a series of examples that demonstrate:

* using Ajax.Request to manage XMLHTTPRequest

* automatically updating pages with Ajax.Updater

* polling with PeriodicalExecuter

* managing forms with Form.serialize

* responding to inputs with Event.observe

* simplifying DOM updates with Insertion

But there's more! Prototype exemplifies modern JavaScript coding style. You will see how to take advantage of "Prototype as JavaScript++" by

* using JSON for parameter passing

* defining classes with Class.create and Object.extend

* using Ruby-inspired extensions to the JavaScript object model, such as Array.each

JRuby is not one, but two great technologies: the Ruby language, and the Java Virtual Machine and libraries. In this talk you will learn the basics of programming JRuby, and how to integrate JRuby code into existing Java projects.

Ruby is a great language, but you cannot afford to throw away you investment in existing Java libraries. And you don't have to. JRuby is a sufficient subset of Ruby to be far more expressive and productive than Java. Plus, JRuby's integration with Java means that you can call your Java libraries.

We'll look at Ruby basics, at calling Ruby from Java, calling Java from Ruby. We'll also explore the current limitations of JRuby, which ones are likely to be lifted in the future, and why.