Much like Google’s GWT, Microsoft’s new Volta project compiles .net assemblies into client side ajax interfaces without requiring a line of javascript.

From the press release:

You architect and build your application as a .NET client application, assigning the portions of the application that run on the server tier and client tier late in the development process. You can target either web browsers or the CLR as clients and Volta handles the complexities of tier-splitting. The compiler creates cross-browser JavaScript for the client tier, web services for the server tier, and all communication, serialization, synchronization, security, and other boilerplate code to tie the tiers together. In effect, Volta offers a best-effort experience in multiple environments without requiring tailoring of the application.

Check it out at labs.live.com/volta/

A new featurepack for the Gaia Ajax Widgets framework has been released along with new logo. The release is free for all those who had purchased the Q3 release of the software.

• Added up Focus override for most of the Controls
• Several new Widgets; FishEye, DisappearingPanel (useful for having Context Menus), DraggablePanel, TabControl and WizardControl
• InPlaceEdit can now be either a “single line edit box” or “multiple line edit box”
• Three new skins; “light_blue”, “ivory_white” and “mac_light”
• 100% Safari Support! This is a feature we know many of our existing customers have been wanting for a long time…
• And much more…

Gaia is a commercial .net widget framework that retails for 295 € and features complete mono support.