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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.
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
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?
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.
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.
Well, there are a couple of things to consider:
1 - The idiotic individual that was Lotus President and that steered Lotus in the direction of Microsoft has been removed (he cheated on his military and academic careers, IIRC)
2 - Wine works GREATLY. I've been using the Notes Client with it for the last 8 month, and with the 20000801 release virtually all problems are solved. I'm sure IBM could try a Wine port of their Windows client, but even without that things seems pretty good.
As far as this new technology is concerned, the announce is too sketchy to understand what is it, and I have no time to spend on the study of such a thing. Seems to me, however, that is a way to use HTML/web to assemble application based on native components (Win32 on Windows, Gnome on Gnome), so it won't give us windows components/applications via browser.
Ciao,
Rob!
AniToolBox! An Open Source animation program!