ALE is Ajax Linking and Embedding. In the same way that OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) allows Windows applications to embed each other's content, ALE allows Ajax-based applications to embed and enable editing content from other applications.
Google has done some similar work in v2 of their maps API. I wonder how Microsoft plans to to handle embedding in Atlas? The ability to encapsulate functionality into controls in the ASP.NET environment would lend itself well to this.
Frustrated by my (otherwise excellent) host's slowness to move to PHP 5, I did a quick search and see that most everyone else is in the same boat. Hosts just aren't moving off of PHP 4 until there is broader application support for v5.
This is frustrating for those of us who would like to take advantage of the the improved object model, the XML parser, and the SOAP support that PHP 5 offers.
Tim Bray's got an interesting discussion regarding use of PHP for building websites. PHP is easy to learn, and one can throw together PHP code to dynamically generate a web page pretty quickly. But that's also the problem -- there's lots of bad, thrown-together PHP code out there. How much of it is due to the language vs. those using it? Personally, I love using PHP, and agree with the others who say it's up to the programmer to write good code or bad. It takes a lot of discipline to write maintainable, production-quality PHP. Kind of like the old days of BASIC.
