OpenLaszlo Developments Afoot

Dietrich Kappe, Sunday, July 2, 2006 @ 12:56 am

One way that AJAX frameworks are going to be embraced is by providing lots of widgets. Another is by signing up other companies to develop applications using their framework. Nothing spells credibility than working software. To that end Laszlo Systems has announced that someone's going to be adding more oomph to their email software product built using OpenLaszlo:

Laszlo Systems, developer of OpenLaszlo, the leading advanced open source
platform for building and deploying Ajax applications, and Goodmail
Systems, creator of the CertifiedEmail system for trusted email, today
announced that Laszlo Mail will support the recognition and presentation of
CertifiedEmail messages. Offered for license to businesses and
communications service providers, Laszlo Mail delivers the functionality
and responsiveness of desktop email without requiring any client software
installation. Now with CertifiedEmail, Laszlo Mail will have the added
benefit of protecting users from phishing and other forms of email-based
fraud.

Hmm, the former Flash product is now "the leading advanced open source
platform for building and deploying Ajax applications." Last time I looked at their source tree it didn't do DHTML yet.

agile ajax

Comments: 1 so far

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1. 

   Well, two comments, I guess.

   From my own point of view, OpenLaszlo’s LZX has been Ajax since the day it was born– about six years ago. It happens to compile to SWF, but what you write is Asynchronous Javascript + XML, which is the definition of Ajax. Of course, historically, OpenLaszlo compiles LZX to (Flash) .swf, so the Flash engine, not the browser, is what ultimately executes the program. If the definition of Ajax is that the browswer executes just exactly what javascript that the programmer writes, then OpenLaszlo isn’t Ajax — nor is it likely to be Ajax anytime soon, since there will always be a compiler involved (unless and until an LZX runtime appears on the scene.)

   So, does “Ajax” refer to source language or to the target runtime? Well, that’s a theological question, I guess, but Jesse James Garrett, the so-called coiner of the Ajax term, has said in several venues that OpenLaszlo is Ajax, and I tend to agree with him. LZX is proper XML and ECMA262 Javascript. It just so-happens that it’s compiled. Does that make it non-Ajaxian ipso facto? I don’t see why, myself.

   But really, who cares? I’m not trying to win a debating point because it’s not a point worth debating. I’m just pointing out that the term is ambiguous, and many people don’t think “Ajax” == “DHTML”. I think OpenLaszlo is every bit as Ajaxian as anything out there, for example DoJo, but that’s not what’s important. What’s important is what it is and what it can do for you. In other words, it should be judged on its merits, not on its buzzword conformance.

   As for its source tree compiling to DHTML, there are two OpenLaszlo branches. The 3.n branch compiles to SWF only.

   The Legals branch, however, compiles to swf and DHTML. http://weblog.openlaszlo.org/archives/2006/06/introducing-legals/
   Now, the legals branch is not recommended for use in developing applications; it’s a “snapshot” release that is there so interested parties can see how it works and the direction it’s going. Under current schedules it will be a few more months before it’s fully baked. But it’s there under SVN, it’s open source, it’s free, and it compiles to DHTML.

   Disclosure: I’m the OpenLaszlo documentation guy.

   Comment by John Sundman, Sunday, July 2, 2006 @ 7:49 pm

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