1.13. Summary

In this chapter, we began our journey of exploration into the world of Ext JS by taking a step back and looking at the evolution of web application development. In fact, we took a step even further back than that and looked at what the term "web application" means in the first place. We looked at what an RIA is all about, and we talked about Ajax and why it's such an important development. We even looked at some other options for developing RIAs other than Ext JS. Finally, and most importantly for our purposes in this book, we looked at Ext JS itself! We saw what it has to offer, how it's structured, learned a bit about its history and philosophy, and we got started with the basics of using it.

In the next chapter we'll take the next step and look in much more detail at using Ext JS. We'll see more of its capabilities and get more familiar with it in general. All of this is meant to set the stage for the project chapters to follow. Also in the next chapter we'll look at something called Gears, which coupled with Ext JS will allow us to create those coming applications.

So get comfortable and move on—the best is yet to come!