With 'jaks, developers get a development environment for building AJAX-based Web applications, often with much less coding, according to the

Design goals include simplifying AJAX programming, providing a thin layer over Echo2, and offering a Tk-inspired object interface. 'jaks uses Jacl, a Java implementation of Tcl implemented on top of Echo2. Tk is a toolkit coupled with Tcl.

"My intentions are to basically bring the Tcl [language and] Tk into the AJAX environment," Poindexter said on Tuesday.

Tk, he said, has featured a windowing toolkit that is cross-platform and enables building of applications on Windows, Unix, and Mac OS. "I'm trying to use that same style of programming in an AJAX environment," Poindexter said.

Version 0.4 of 'jaks was released on January 1. Plans call for adding Echo2 component libraries for capabilities such as menus and visual effects. Also planned is the addition of a unified database access layer to make 'jaks more of a framework, Poindexter said.