Slashdot Mirror
IBM Releases SashXB
IBM has released SashXB
for the Open Source community. SashXB is Weblication Development Environment (a.k.a. the WDE), so you can use it to write "weblications". From the screenshots it looks pretty impressive, and there is a Lotus Notes Client included written with this tool. The license ig LGPL.
--
Trolling using another account since 2005.
Gee, this sounds cool, especially the Lotus Notes client! However, isn't there something important missing here? Such as a download link, where we can download all at once. Or are we supposed to get all files one-by-one from their CVS Web page?
I just found this on their mailing list:
;).
> Can anyone point to a coherent explaination of what
> Sash can offer on Linux, and what it's parts are?
>
This question is probably going to be asked a lot, so I guess we should
start creating a FAQ somewhere.
Anyway. This is of course by no means an official position on anything;
these are just my thoughts.
The Sash end-user gets:
* Painless installation (no command line necessary -- straight from the
browser to the [graphical] installer).
* One-click uninstallation, with recursive dependency checking to prevent
the removal of vital components.
* A point and click interface for the execution and management of all of
his weblications
* Automatic updating of programs/extensions (this is in the works)
* Tiny download sizes for native, fully functional weblications
* Highly componentized infrastructure avoids bloatware -- a program only
fetches and loads exactly what it needs to run.
* Tight security controls every single thing a weblication tries to do
The Sash developer gets:
[from a structural point of view]
* Rapid deployment and easy management of programs
* Powerful native functionality without having to learn a new skill set
(provided that he already knows JavaScript and HTML)
[from a design point of view]
* Ridiculously easy drag-and-drop design for his weblication's UI
* Painless integration of UI with SashScript
* A full-featured IDE which takes him from start to finish in creating a
weblication, including:
- syntax highlighting
- syntax assistance (a la Microsoft's Intellisense)
- multiple document/multiple window interface
- Druids (wizards) which aid in the creation of any given action,
or in the creation of the weblication as a whole
I'm sure there are more features which I am missing right now.
Yeah, this sounds terribly hokey, but it's actually true. We've created a
sample text editor, a web browser, even a simple Lotus Notes mail client
(as demos), each in about an hour, start-to-finish.
Man, I really do sound like a salesman
As for parts, perhaps that's for another email. There are two main parts:
the runtime, which runs the weblications, and the WDE (development
environment) which aids developers in writing weblications. For more info,
check out the README.* files in the source tree...
AJ
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
While I am extremely happy at the release of a Notes client for Linux, and one that may evidently be customised and adapted I see IBM front-loading their efforts.
I would like to see more thought put into the work during and after the release.
For Example:- The downloadable Linux Domino Server does not provide instructions as to what commands to run to execute the server setup in the readme.
I have no problem reading and following documentation and I do not think that anyone would complain of bloating if they put the relevant text files with the download.
My point in short is that they would get much better market penetration if they set their documentation sites at the competant rather than expert.
Slashdot Beta should die a painful death.
This might not be a direct problem for SashXB since it is under the LGPL but it might be a problem for pure GPL programs in GNOME that want to use parts of the libraries that it depends on.
Should GNOME really include parts that are not GPL compatible?
In a tech world where "Open Source" is the latest catch phrase, I know that I for one am glad to see IBM actually treating open source as it was meant to be treated. IBM has given Linux and Open Source much more credibility in the eyes of coporate IT than us geeks ever could. Kudos to IBM for a job well done. I think many other companies should take a lesson from this.
Don't get too excited yet... I have yet to find any info on a Notes client on their site. If anyone can find the specifics, let me know. Notes would rock of course, there I could put linux on my workstation...
---- I made the Kessel Run in under 11 parsecs.
Sash Notes Mail Client
Sash Notes Navigator
Carlos Mail Alert
Going off on a tangent here -- I'm pretty sure that SashXP has nothing to do with active desktop, I'd love to have a Gecko-enabled root window in X, it'd mean I could get rid of a lot of the other annoying things I put up with for the sake of there being nothing else available.
Replacing desktop icons with links would make my day. The icon system in gmc is an ugly kludge. It'd be great to be able to code functionality directly into the root window using simple tools like HTML, Javascript and style-sheets. A couple of tricks with mouse-overs and layers, and you could do write your own application launch menus. A basic <EMBED> API, and you've got yourself a way to swallow apps into the root window in the way we normally do with docks or panels.
With ten minutes, and without having to learn some obscure C++ API, I could write a little bit of code that popped up the current slashdot headlines when I clicked on an image on my desktop.
That'd be cool.
Charles Miller
--
The more I learn about the Internet, the more amazed I am that it works at all.
Zope does not serve quite the same purpose as SashXB. SashXB is essentially a way for web developers, of whom there are a lot, to write the same type of software written by C/C++ hackers, of which there are relatively few. This means writing regular desktop software with technologies like HTML, XML, and JavaScript, with a minimum of additional training required for those already familiar with these technologies.
SashXB weblications have the same amount of access to your desktop as any other application - you could have a weblication running in your GNOME panel, for example. Of course, scripting combined with access to user data can be an unpleasant combination as Melissa and ILOVEYOU demonstrated, so SashXB includes a sophisticated security manager. The idea here is that SashXB checks each and every operation performed by the weblication to ensure that it has been authorized by the user.
The big advantage to this? The Lotus Notes demo client took under an hour to write.
From where I sit, it looks like IBM is into Open Source for a couple of reasons. First of all, it brings their applications to Linux, which we all know doesn't hurt anything at all. It also makes their products much more stable, and in general, better. Secondly, IBM has lost alot of ground on Notes. Microsoft Exchange has taken alot of market share away from them. I'd say IBM has done it to regain some market share, and at the same time, take away from MS. I don't think IBM is after revenge, but they'd be dumb to just give in to competition.
Personally, I don't care what their motivation is. I think the opening of it's applications (and other technologies as well, i.e. JFS, AFS, et. al.) is a good thing. While it helps them to possibly keeps what footing it has left, it also gives a great deal of credibility to the Linux and Open Source movements. I don't see how this could be bad, even if it is LGPL.
There isn't even a Unix Notes client anymore. Hasn't been one since 4.5. There is no Notes client other than W32. Even the server admin console is on W32 regardless of server platform so if you have a Unix cluster hosting Notes you can no longer run the console off, say the control workstation. There have been lots of complaints about a Linux client or any *nix client but that's just the way it is. Lotus/Iris decides these things based on how much money, time, people they have to spend on development. Understand that the reference platform for Notes continues to be NT/2000. Everything else comes from that. "Special" server ports like some flavors of Unix and Linux and S/390 are not handled by Lotus at all but the party line is held by all, and all client direction is centrally controlled. Your better off just running VMWare compared to waiting for the mystical mythical Linux Notes client to arrive - because the king is dead, the ship already sailed to Avalon and it isn't coming back.
I really see the application/applet/web site merging into this Webplication thing. I am a Java developer and I write middleware CORBA infrastructure for our app developers. Every time a new application comes a long a standalone application is written, then perhaps an applet, and then maybe a web page backended by JSP or Servlets. If you think about it, the piece in the middle tier is really doing the *exact* same functionality for each of these pieces. Each of these pieces is just a presentation layer. I'm had thoughts in my head about how these things could merge. I have a set of classes that enable a standalone application to seamlessly double as an applet (it detects its environment and reacts accordingly) making life much easier for the developer. But that doesn't really supply the web page aspect of it. What one could do is use some of the GUI/HTML mappings to use pseudo-widgets in the middle-tier code to make it easy to map a GUI to HTML. But that just presents more work. What really needs to be done, and I see it happening now, is that the *client* must have a _standard presentation layer_ for all applications, distributed or not. I think Mozilla, and SlashXB are the signs of this. Now, I don't have to think about writing standalone applications, or applets, or a web page. Using a unified presentation layer, the same middle-tier logic object can feed all these clients no matter where they are, with *identical* user interfaces. Needless to say, this is cool.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
IBM actually makes more money selling software than any company in the world. (Through stock option tricks, M$ loses money selling software, and makes bucketloads selling stock) IBM simply doesn't want to waste it's time on $60/copy client software and client operating systems. The real money is in the mega-buck server software. Think about it, what would you rather support:
A) One zillion badly-built, non-standard PC'S, with similarly badly configured OS's? (at $60/copy) OR
B) Ten thousand badly-built, badly-configured, servers at many kilo-bucks per copy, per year.
And oh yes, services to maintain and run all those servers. If bits run through it, IBM wants to sell it to you.
SirWired
Wow, you've just invented Win98.
Scuttlemonkey is a troll
I'm digging through Gnome, here and here and I haven't seen word 1 about Lotus Notes. Where's the real link? Or did you just make this up?
It's rare that you're presented with a knob whose only two positions are Make History and Flee Your Glorious Destiny.
Oops, I spoke too soon: the bug is fixed in the 20000821 release... well sortof. Doubleclicking on the attachment no longer works, however rightclicking on the attachment pops up a menu complete with View/Detach/Launch. Both View and Detach work now!