Narp to Ajax, narp to DHTML, but yarp to Yarp

Here in the US in particular, we’re in the midst of a season with lots of opportunities to send invitations and to take surveys, and I want to tell you about a very cool new way to do both: Yarp. It’s a Ruby on Rails application built by a couple of friends that takes an entirely new approach to invitation and survey creation. It does not require logins, it only allows yes or no answers, and it is fun to use.

When you test drive Yarp, you’ll notice that the UI is slick, but you’ll also no doubt recognize that it could be even slicker if it were done in Flash. You may well wonder why the developers didn’t do it in Flash. Well, it so happens that Flash is against their religion.

You may be wondering why I’m even talking about Yarp when its creators are anti-Flashers. After all, I’ve made no secret of the fact that I think it is wrong-headed to continue building Web applications with those unholy amalgamations of mismatched technologies known as Ajax and DHTML. Well, it so happens that I believe in acknowledging good work no matter who does it, and no matter what technologies they use to get it done. I believe that people can have differences, and even tell each other that they are wrong, and still appreciate the good in one another. In spite of our religious differences, I think these are good guys who do great work, and I don’t mind saying so - any more than I mind saying that their choice of UI technologies is really poor.

So, I plan to continue using Yarp, and I plan to continue enjoying it. Give it a spin, and then let me know what you think.