The W3C Web API Working Group has published the first public working draft of The XMLHttpRequest Object:
The XMLHttpRequest object is an interface exposed by a scripting engine that allows scripts to perform HTTP client functionality, such as submitting form data or loading data from a remove Web site.
The XMLHttpRequest object is implemented today, in some form, by many popular Web browsers. Unfortunately the implementations are not completely interoperable. The goal of this specification is to document a minimum set of interoperable features based on existing implementations, allowing Web developers to use these features without platform-specific code. In order to do this, only features that are already implemented are considered. In the case where there is a feature with no interoperable implementations, the authors have specified what they believe to be the most correct behavior.
Future versions of this specification (as opposed to future drafts of this version) may add new features, after careful examination from browser developers and Web content developers.
This specification was originally derived from the WHAT WG's Web Applications 1.0 document. The authors acknowledge the work of the WHAT WG in documenting existing behavior.
