11.18.05

Conditional compilation

Posted on November 18th, 2005 in Documentation by ptw

The Laszlo compiler does simple partial evaluation of constants in if statements. This was seen as just as good as #ifdef, without having to invent a new syntax or have a pre-processor.

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OnJava: Dashboard demo is to Die For

Posted on November 18th, 2005 in Mentions, Press by Oliver

O’Reilly’s OnJava.com contains a set of interviews with prominent Java authors and developers about Java in the post-Ruby world. The article is called Ruby the Rival, and it’s worth reading.

The article is mostly about the server side, but OpenLaszlo comes up too. OnJava blogger Robert Cooper is quoted as saying:

What irritates me is that in the “applet” space that Java invented, you look at Flash(plus Flex/Laszlo) and it crushes applets in both “cool” (get me to a good user experience quickly) and “powerful” (I get data binding/SOAP/XML-RPC/etc. for free). The fact that the “powerful” side of that isn’t in the core JRE immediately kills the usefulness of applets, and if anyone can show me an applet that looks anywhere near as good as the Laszlo Dashboard demo in a similar number of lines of code, I might have a coronary on the spot. “Cool” counts for a lot, too.

OpenLaszlo 3.1 Released

Posted on November 18th, 2005 in Announcements, Releases by Oliver

We are pleased to announce that OpenLaszlo 3.1 is available for download. We are excited about the application development possibilities with all of the new features and performance improvements in this release. We wish to thank all of the community members who contributed code, submitted bug fixes, tested the incremental versions, and provided feedback.

Here are the important links:
• DOWNLOADS: http://www.openlaszlo.org/download
• RELEASE NOTES: http://www.openlaszlo.org/download/binaries/3.1/release-notes.html
• IDE4LASZLO: http://eclipse.org/laszlo

You can also keep up with the latest features and fixes in the code by downloading the nightly builds: http://www.openlaszlo.org/download/

OpenLaszlo 3.1 provides a significant number of new features, including a rich text class, new components: hbox, vbox, and image, Flash 8 file generation, local datasets, browser history integration: the default HTML wrappers now include support for browser history and setcanvasAttribute(), an XMLHttpRequest (”AJAX”) API, a setcanvasAttribute() Javascript function that can optionally add browser history events, applications now default to window size, a “View source” menu item, a charting and graphing components (beta), a tutorial introduction to Drawview, version detection, developer console enhancements, a global “hand cursor” parameter, a backtrace facility and other improvements in the debugger, changes to the splash screen such that it now takes percentages, and new code in the incubator.

There are also numerous bug fixes, and performance improvements. To view the complete list, see JIRA: http://www.openlaszlo.org/jira/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?reset=true&pid=10020&fixfor=10085

Glancer

Posted on November 18th, 2005 in Sightings by Oliver

Glancer is an OpenLaszlo application that matches conference attendees with each other, based on the topics and technologies that they’ve indicated they’re interested in. It’s currently in public alpha. The project blog is here.

Gliffy: Diagrams for Web 2.0

Posted on November 18th, 2005 in Sightings by Oliver

“Gliffy is a suite of online applications designed to replace expensive and difficult to maintain desktop software. Since Gliffy applications work in any web browser, sharing your work is made simple.”

The first Gliffy application is an online diagram creation and sharing tool. It’s in closed beta, but you can see a glimpse of it here.

This Week’s OpenLaszlo Positions

Posted on November 18th, 2005 in Jobs by Oliver

This week saw three new job postings, according to my Bloglines search:

Principal Engineer at TheLadders.com in Atlanta, GA.
“Additional skills that would help you do your job are intimate familiarity with Java application servers, SLBs, TCP/IP, Laszlo Presentation Server (LPS), and other related technologies.”

Software Engineer (Client side) at Stivant, in San Jose and Phoenix.
“Requirements: Knowledge of Laszlo and other client-side technologies”

Flash Developer at Effective User Interface, in Denver.
“FLEX or Laszlo experience a HUGE plus.”

These and more are listed on the wiki jobs page.

Scoble’s “Higher Definition Web”

Posted on November 18th, 2005 in Mentions by Oliver

Robert Scoble writes:

I’m still making the tour of Silicon Valley to see ideas of what the Web of the future might look like. I’m talking with Co-founder and CTO of Laszlo, David Temkin, and Senior Product Marketing Manager, Lyndon Wong of Laszlo.

They are showing me their vision of the Web. We’re talking about Flash. They are showing me their new Laszlomail. They are selling that to ISPs. Now, that alone might look interesting, but what’s real interesting is the development framework that they are building. I’ve written about their story before.

But their story is getting much better built out. Today you write Web applications using the Laszlo system in OpenLaszlo. Here’s a tutorial. Today it compiles that app into a SWF (Flash movie) but tomorrow? They are working on AJAX and .NET versions.

So, don’t look at LaszloMail as an email client. Look at it as a new kind of Web application. I call it the higher definition Web. Coming soon to a browser near you.

11.17.05

More OpenLaszlo Positions

Posted on November 17th, 2005 in Jobs by Oliver

Seen on Craig’s List:

Many more jobs are listed in the expanded Jobs page on the wiki and the Job Posting section of the forums.

OpenLaszlo and the W3C

Posted on November 17th, 2005 in Mentions by Oliver

The W3C Web Application Formats Working Group is chartered to develop languages for client-side Web Application development. The first deliverable is “Specification of a declarative format for applications and user interfaces”:

This deliverable should be based on an existing application/UI format, such as Mozilla’s XUL, Microsoft’s XAML, Macromedia’s MXML or Laszlo Systems’ LZX, provided the owners of the format are willing to contribute. The format should allow embedded program code. This format, combined with the deliverables below and existing technologies including XHTML, CSS, XForms, SVG and SMIL, should provide a strong basis for rich client application development.” – emphasis mine

11.16.05

Mainada Online Comic Book Creator

Posted on November 16th, 2005 in General by Oliver

Mainada Online Comic Book Creator is a free online comic creation and viewing program. Artists can create comics online and publish them immediately; readers are able to view and rate them.

This site uses both OpenLaszlo and Ruby on Rails.

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