Ajax best practices

[eluser]bikuta[/eluser]
[quote author="inparo" date="1203740563"]
Last but not least, everything should work with javascript turned off.
[/quote]

Is it possible to create an ajax like interface, i.e., not having to load the page again without javascript?

I'm creating a real-time chat application and so I'm thinking of using ajax to send and retrieve messages to the server. However this will not work if javascript is turned off. So would it be reasonable to say that javascript is "required" in this case?

[eluser]billmce[/eluser]
Pascal,
the link to your how-to and code for Ajax (this thread http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/72439/) isn't available. Can you post it ?