[ezekiel68]

I agree with your basic premise. However, in this particular instance, what would have been the historical equivalent ("already happened") of scripts sent by the server to the client during the request response cycle, which could perform layout and logic in the client?

If you're simply referring to code that could run on both client and server, your point is clearer to me.

[cubano]

AJAX is part of the request response cycle?

Let's face facts...AJAX is the real secret sauce with JS and what makes it truly useful.

[bryankaplan]

Long before the term "AJAX" was coined, we used hidden iframes to do the same thing.

[ptx]

Display PostScript[1] maybe? Developed by NeXT in 1987.

Or NeWS[2], also based on PostScript.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_PostScript

[2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeWS