ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 (excitement builds)

I just downloaded beta 1 of ASP.NET AJAX today. Wow! Lots and lots of changes. The type system has been greatly simplified. I like this. The move to prototypes over closures was a good decision. The core scripts are much easier to read and comprehend as well. The CTP download has been a 404 for me this evening so I haven't had a chance to dive into it.

Looking through the core scripts there seem to many improvements. There used to be a bunch of prototype extensions to the Function object that were really only applicable to ctor functions. This seemed like it was pretty inefficient. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore.

All in all the script library feels less like a hodge podge of techniques from around the web and has more of a cohesive feel to it. Maybe that'll change once I get into the CTP add-ons. Overall I'm impressed with what I've seen so far. This definitely seems like a big step forward.

We used the CTPs for some back-end admin functionality on http://www.learnvisualstudio.net/ so as soon as I can lay my hands on the new CTP bits I'll have to see what the migration process is like.

Ok, time to get back to playing... :)

Update: looks like the CTP download is working now. I think its going to be a long weekend. ;)