Despite the lack of an editor, these interactions give Yahoo's library a smoother feel, compared with the rough-and-tumble state of Open Rico or Zimbra. Whenever you dive into the code with Yahoo's toolkit, you usually come away feeling that the company has spent a bit more time optimizing the functions and adding some real depth to the libraries.

Opening up the future

As these open source AJAX packages evolve, I think we'll see more of a difference between the ones that are directly tied to one corporation and the ones that remain outside the control of one particular company.

I expect that Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo will continue to exert tighter control and editorial guidance over their AJAX projects, compared with the neutral packages. This control will help people who like a bit more polish and better documentation, because I expect that the vendors will include the efforts of regular staffers.

Such generosity always comes with a price, although it may be small. Yahoo's JavaScript libraries, for instance, will always be there to support Yahoo's mapping business. Dojo's libraries, on the other hand, can work with either Google Maps or Yahoo Maps.