DHTML was basically just a buzzword for the first SPA interactions.
The first, real uses cases for XMLHttpRequests was sending chunks of HTML over the wire and updating the DOM via JavaScript - so “Dynamic HTML”
See also htmx for a modern buzzword for this idea
I had a book on DHTML in the late 90s long before ajax was a thing. It simply meant scripting the DOM. The MS version did have some fancy transition filters too.
Yep spa weren't even a possibility back then
They were. Microsoft Outlook Web Access was exactly that, it's why Microsoft invented XHR. Google Maps later got a lot of credit for kicking off "Ajax", but OWA laid the groundwork.
While we’re narrowing actuallys, it was Gmail that got the credit. And somewhat relevant to the article, I believe that was Google’s first major showcase of the Java-based GWT.