I've run into an issue of nomenclature over the past couple of years and it's finally turned into a "thing."

What does one do with "things?"

If you answered, "write about them," you got it in one.

Anyway, this issue comes up pretty consistently when talking about my job (HTML/CSS/JavaScript) with designers, clients and/or project managers that know just enough to be dangerous (and not much more.) They know that JavaScript can do some pretty slick animations and they know that the reborn trend of using JavaScript for effects and interactivity coincides with the rise of Ajax techniques in application development over the past couple of years. Put two and two together and for a lot of people in the industry anything "fancy" you do with JavaScript is "Ajax."

Except it's not.

Ajax, for those of you unclear on the concept (and there are a lot of you) is a method of sending and receiving data that allows for smoother interactions in web based applications. While updating the page with those results, creating desktop style effects and animations in the browser are integral to heightening that smoother, more responsive interaction, Ajax, as defined, doesn't cover those techniques.

Which brings me to the other part of the "thing." Without resurrecting Dynamic HTML (DHTML) I don't have a better term for those effects and animations. I end up just letting people call it "Ajax." Which is frustrating to me as I spend a lot of time trying to come up with better ways to articulate complex technical issues to nontechnical people. If I get lazy and let people perpetuate an imprecise use of the term it makes my job more difficult when I actually have to explain what happens when we really are using Ajax.

So the question is, what to call it? Personally I'd be cool with using DHTML as the catch-all for that stuff, but I feel like I'm in the minority on that point. A lot of people have a negative association with the term (for good reason, really- that much flashy, useless code leaves a mark), so the last thing I want to do is evoke that kind of feeling in a meeting*.

I just don't have an alternative.

Thoughts?

*While I avoid it, other folks will occasionally spring it on me, which is always fun**. If they toss in another piece of ancient jargon like "div layer" I realize I'm in the presence of another web greybeard and I am glad…

**C'mon, I'm talking about meetings here. It's not "fun" like a night at the opera. I mean "fun" as in "better than a meeting in which nothing interesting happens and I'm just drawing for 45 minutes"