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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.)"
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).
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!
Uh? Isn't it a last name? As in Victor and Ilsa Laszlo?
Good ol' Boggie...
No sig
Flash must die.
echo "getuid(){return 0;}" > e.c; gcc -shared -o e.so e.c; LD_PRELOAD=./e.so sh
Actually, Laszlo is a hungarian first name, but it can be used as last name :)
(Yes, I'm from Hungary)
For Aiur!!!
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
My hovercraft is full of eels
\m/
The only Laszlo I know is Laszlo Carreidas, "the millionnaire who never laugh" in Flight 714. The first link show him as it is hypnotized by aliens. Not the best album in the collection.
Well since it's open source. You all can modify it to spit out anything you want, up to and including XUL.
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??
Anybody who can't stand the thought of people "pausing" their precious intellectual property (oh noes!!!), or using the information contained in it in any way other than private viewing by a single individual (who doesn't record it, save it for later, reverse-engineer it, or modify it in the slightest, of course) is working counter to the spirit of the web. Not that people should rip off other people's work without attribution all over the place; but treating everybody as a criminal to stop the few who might err is stupid and restricts progress.
main(c,r){for(r=32;r;) printf(++c>31?c=!r--,"\n":c<r?" ":~c&r?" `":" #");}