Slashdot Mirror
OpenLaszlo 3.0 Announced
gse writes "The friendly folks at Laszlo Systems (of which I am one) have just announced the release of OpenLaszlo 3.0. Cool new features in this release: SOLO deployment (compile standalone .swf applications that don't need a proxy server), dynamically loadable libraries, a drawing API, and a bunch of optimizations. Info and downloads are at openlaszlo.org. (OpenLaszlo has been covered before on Slashdot.)"
László is a hungarian male name.
I'm stunned that there is not more of a response to this news here on Slashdot. OpenLaszlo is a great product. You can author some really nice applications using their framework, and it's open source to top if off.
The ability to deploy standalone SWF files is most definitely a direct result of the folks over at Laszlo opening the source. Before, the server side "engine" was, really, their product. You would have to install that in order to serve up a Laszlo application. This is just like Macromedia/Adobe's business model with Flex. When they opened the source, the first thing they wanted to do was be able to publish stand alone SWF files because now the business model no longer centered around their server app.
So how do they make their money now? Well, they've got a few big time clients using their technology, and who better to apply the technology than those who designed it? Laszlo now hopes to generate cash flow by offering professional laszlo development. This is the type of business plan I would love to see more software vendors follow. I really hope Laszlo thrives as a company.. it would really make a statement. It's a great addition to the open source community in an area that has been littered with closed-source solutions (RIA).
NINE minutes late.
Sorry, but you suck.
I've yet to see a useful Flash MDI or desktop type application (like the http://openlaszlo.org/ demos) that was an improvement over a cleverly implemented HTML/javascript type application doing the same thing.
I suspose part of the problem is that the platform (Flash MX 2004 or whatever) doesn't have many useful IDE type tools for more serious development. Perhaps this OpenLaszlo will help, but I still think it's a mistake to implement anything more than a gimmiky or widgety type program with Flash. It never feels like a decent app!
Flash must die.
echo "getuid(){return 0;}" > e.c; gcc -shared -o e.so e.c; LD_PRELOAD=./e.so sh
I dislike how little control users have over how Flash appears and works -- there are very good reasons why I use user stylesheets and set the font size on my browser so I can read text. There's also the problem of not having a free software Flash player which can play the Flash data people commonly use.
Too many times I've seen webpages where Flash is used as a replacement for what is done better with (X)HTML+CSS instead of as an augmentation for (X)HTML+CSS. Even Javascript is sometimes unnecessarily used or no alternative means of access is provided for those who don't have Javascript or don't want to use it because of various security problems.
Digital Citizen
Well since it's open source. You all can modify it to spit out anything you want, up to and including XUL.
I has no idea what Laszlo is (Victor Laszlo?) . I see it has something to do with SWF (generates it? turns it into a delicious stew? Who knows).
I like plain HTML.
I tolerate Ajax.
I avoid SWF.
Sorry, whatever this thing does, it ain't doin' it in my browser.
Laszlo is a platform for creating rich internet applications
Rich to me means the follow:
fat
bloated
unreliable
won't work right in some browsers
probably proprietary in some way (flash?)
hard to repurpose (can I scrape it with curl and grep?)
causes heart attacks (well, rich food anyway)
Show me your tool for creating "LEAN" sites and I'll be interested.
Yep, know what you mean...
Take http://www.heavy.com/ very heavy on Flash.
I'm just wondering what the position of Flash and open source etc. Q1: Is the swf format open? i.e. are their any restrictions on creating clients which read swf or programs which can create swf. Q2: Is it API documented? Q3: Are there patent problems? Q4: are there any good open source alternatives to Flash Player? Q5: Any good open source flash dev tools? Rich
There are four sorts of people in the world: fools, lunatics, idiots and morons. - Umberto Eco, Foucaut's pendulum.
I wish I had point to mod you up. Slasdot's main problem is that most idiots here infer that, since substance is more important than style (which is true), the logical conclusion is to remove all style from everything.
There is life beyond a green terminal screen.
The dangers of excessive individualism are nothing compared to the oppressiveness of excessive collectivism
All the demos are fixed size apps.
They look cool but it isn't cool that they don't scale like we are used to html based application do.
Is it hard to make the Laszlo applications scale with the browser window??
It seems from your site you decided late in the game to go FOSS. From your management profiles, it would seem that the bunch of Valley suits running the company have decided to jump on the latest business bandwagon to "leverage" Open Source after sales were nil.
That doesn't keep very well with the true spirit of the FOSS community (not to metion the Flash thing). We can all use corporate acceptance and help, but switching over last minute to *use* the community and shore up a failing business is insincere to say the least.
I got to say that I'm extremely impress about this openlaszlo, particularly its open sourceness. I cannot wait to write an app with it...
Cheers, ajam
4,6, and 10 Can be viewed as features not bugs. From the standpoint of those who work hard producing content. The above are features. From those who subscribe to the "your music and movies wants to be free", they are bugs. That's also part of the reason SVG and SMIL will not take off.