Two interesting things happened last week here at Laszlo headquarters: one, OpenLaszlo 3.2 was released. It includes lots of good new stuff, but the release notes gloss over this change: the script compiler is about five times faster(!) than it was in 3.1. Why? We ported the script compiler from Jython to Java. (and by "we", I mostly mean "Tucker")

I figured that the Laszlo Mail codebase would make a decent real-world benchmark. So I compiled the LZX piece of Laszlo Mail from scratch, with an empty cache, on my Thinkpad T42 (1.7ghz, 1 gig RAM) Here's the compile times:

• OpenLaszlo 3.1: 95 seconds
• OpenLaszlo 3.2: 34 seconds

That's pretty flipping good.

Right. So the second thing that happened is that we got a shiny new MacBook. Today I compiled LaszloMail on a co-worker's desktop G5, and the shiny Intel thing. Ready?

• G5 (dual 2ghz, 1 gig RAM), OpenLaszlo 3.2: 32 seconds
• MacBook Pro (dual core 2ghz, 2 gig RAM), OpenLaszlo 3.2: 17 seconds

Hot damn!

So if you were avoiding a Powerbook because it seemed too slow for OpenLaszlo work, avoid no more.

Brendan Eich asks, in a comment on Class-based OOP in Javascript done right:

ECMA-262 Edition 3 (http://www.mozilla.org/js/language/E262-3.pdf among other places) specifies (13.2.2 [[Construct]] in function objects, step 7) that the result of new C for a function C is the value returned from C if that value is an object.
What browsers fail to get this right?

This:

var foo = {toString: function () { return "the only Foo"; }};
function Foo() {
return foo;
}

works in Opera 8.52,
Firefox 1.5.0.1 and
IE 6.0.2900 on Windows. It works in Opera 8.52.2190, Firefox 1.5.0.1, and Safari 2.0.3 on OS X. You can try your favorite browser by pushing this button:

onclick="alert(new Foo === foo ? 'It works! :)' : 'It does NOT work. :(')"

Unfortunately for us, it does NOT work for any Flash player, and one of our target runtimes is Flash.

We are pleased to announce the availability of OpenLaszlo 3.2. This release introduces a number of new features, many incubator contributions, improvements to the documentation, and contains valuable bug fixes. Many of the incubator contributions came from the Laszlo Mail team, who has shared some of the look-and-feel from their components. In addition, this release marks a milestone with significant contributions from the OpenLaszlo community - THANK YOU!

Some of the new features include:

• tags within rich text views
• MSAA-compatible accessibility
• Rich text editor palette (available in the incubator)
• Automated unit tests
• New and syntax
• Compiler performance improvements

The incubator has grown tremendously with OpenLaszlo 3.2 to include a rich text editor palette, many buttons, checkboxes, sliders, and radio buttons to help with the look-and-feel of your applications, form validators, compatibility functions for the W3 DOM API bindings for ECMAScript, drawview API enhancements including a cubic bezier implementation, and more. It is definitely worth a look - there is some really cool stuff in here!

In addition, some of the incubator contributions, like newcombobox, have been promoted to components. See the Release Notes for more information.

You can use JIRA to view a complete list of bugs and features that were addressed in OpenLaszlo 3.2.

We encourage you to get involved! Join the OpenLaszlo community and make a difference. We look forward to hearing from you whether in the mailing lists, the developer forums, or through JIRA our bug reporting system.

Application Sighting: OpenLaszlo makes IBM's home page "special"

If you haven't already seen IBM's "What makes you special?" campaign, it is definitely worth a look. Go directly to the campaign here: http://www-306.ibm.com/e-business/ondemand/us/innovation/index.shtml and get a look at the new OpenLaszlo-inspired interface. It is a multi-panel, eye-catching application using many design elements, including expanding and collapsing panels, a horizontally sliding scrollbar of images, embedded podcasts, and animated context-specific text and graphics. Check it out!

OpenLaszlo 3.2cr3, the latest community release of the 3.2 branch, is available for download. Since the last community release, there has been significant testing on this branch. Some of the recent changes include:

• Drawing api changes: LPP-1639 cubic bezier implementation (contributed by Oliver Steele), LPP-1640 CSS color string code (also contributed by Oliver Steele), and LPP-1588 changes to arc to make it match the WHATWG specification.
• More improvements to the Reference Manual
• Fix for the error when setting SWF8 as the runtime default (LPP-1623 contributed by Keiji Ono)
• Elimination of debug warnings in basewindow (LPP-1598)
• Many validator fixes: LPP-1642, LPP-1593, and LPP-1591
• XPATH fix to match attributes with "/" in them (LPP-737)
• LzKeys extensions and correction (LPP-1670, LPP-1671 contributed by Oliver Steele)

The complete list of fixes can be found in the SAGE milestone in JIRA here: http://www.openlaszlo.org/jira/browse/LPP

Please take a moment to download this version, OpenLaszlo 3.2cr3, and report any problems or issues. As always, we encourage you to send us your feedback and contributions!

Information Week. March 13, 2006.

Ajax is a bit like a temperamental actor. The technology does incredible things, but it's painful to work with. That has created a need for Ajax tools that lessen the great pain of crafting interactive Ajax applications for different browsers. The interactive, fast-responding Web applications programmers can create with Ajax (for asynchronous JavaScript and XML) are one part of what people are calling Web 2.0, where quality interactions with users count for more than the number of HTML pages downloaded.

One of the most promising of those Ajax-taming tools is OpenLaszlo, a development framework that until now has focused on the Macromedia Flash Player.

[Read]

YES!

There has been some crazy, crazy work going on here in the last month or two and the result is amazing. Today at etech, we're demoing an early alpha of OpenLaszlo's new DHTML backend. Truth! Press Release!

Here's a new demo showing off the goods:

• LzPix demo, Flash version
• LzPix demo, DHTML version
• LzPix demo, source code

That's a live OpenLaszlo server, running both apps from the same source code.

Also, new shiny openlaszlo.org page, with links to the DHTML demo.

Laszlo Systems Announces Plans to Extend OpenLaszlo Platform to Support Delivery of Web 2.0 Applications in Browsers Without Flash™

- Advanced Ajax Application Development Company to Demonstrate New Native Browser Support at O'Reilly ETech Event -

ETech 2006, SAN DIEGO, Calif. (March 7, 2006) - At the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, Laszlo Systems today announced the planned extension of its advanced Ajax application development platform, OpenLaszlo, to support the delivery of applications in browsers with or without a Flash plug-in. By the end of this year, developers using OpenLaszlo will have the option to deploy their applications using either Flash or Dynamic HTML (DHTML), an open-standard technology built into most Web browsers. Laszlo executives will preview the company's DHTML deployment capabilities at the conference with a live demonstration, which is also accessible on the open source community site, www.openlaszlo.org.

Today's announcement reinforces Laszlo's commitment to the Open Ajax community, which it established last month along with IBM, Oracle, BEA, RedHat, Yahoo!, Google and others. The extension of OpenLaszlo, already open source, to support not only Flash but also DHTML will give developers the option to deploy applications using a fully open software stack. This natural evolution capitalizes on the architecture of OpenLaszlo, designed from its inception to be able to support multiple client runtimes across computers and consumer devices.

"OpenLaszlo has always been independent of Flash from a developer's perspective," said David Temkin, founder and chief technology officer, Laszlo Systems. "The use of Flash to run OpenLaszlo applications was a pragmatic choice when we started Laszlo in 2000 because it was the only ubiquitous and consistent runtime option at that time. But since then, DHTML has evolved as an open standard and is now a viable alternative to Flash to run many OpenLaszlo applications."

Steve Ciesinski, chairman and chief executive officer of Laszlo Systems, added, "Our vision from the start was to enable compelling applications across different runtimes and consumer devices, including mobile phones and TV set-tops, and our plans to support DHTML are consistent with that vision."

Now in version 3.1, the OpenLaszlo platform uses Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) in a highly evolved mark-up language, enabling development of Web-based applications that are as rich and robust as traditional client-based software programs. In contrast to more recent "Ajax toolkits," OpenLaszlo offers a sophisticated framework and a comprehensive set of components that are abstracted from client runtime software, thereby dramatically reducing the cost and complexity of application development. OpenLaszlo has already been adopted across various market sectors, including enterprise, consumer, government and education, and has over 125,000 downloads to date.

Laszlo Systems' partners, IBM and Roundarch, commented on the importance of the OpenLaszlo native browser support news:

"Laszlo has always been an innovator in the rich Internet application development experience, which makes them a great community partner for Eclipse Foundation framework as well as with the Open Ajax technology collaboration," said David Boloker, chief technology officer of Emerging Internet Technologies, IBM Software Group. "We welcome this announcement as it gives users of the OpenLaszlo platform the choice of deploying their applications on DHTML or Flash."

"The advent of the term Ajax has drawn attention to the unstoppable transformation of the Web into an on-demand application delivery environment, where rich user experiences are now accessible by simply entering a URL into any browser," said Charles Fiesel, director at Roundarch, and recognized Ajax evangelist. "The extension of Laszlo's powerful and mature Web application platform to support DHTML is a welcome development for the Ajax community."

Online Information and Demonstration

To learn more about OpenLaszlo and to see a live demonstration of a sample OpenLaszlo application being run on both Flash and DHTML, please visit www.openlaszlo.org. Training and support for OpenLaszlo, including tutorials on Laszlo's dynamic language, LZX, is available at www.laszlosystems.com.

About Laszlo Systems
Laszlo Systems is the original developer of OpenLaszlo, the leading open source platform for building and deploying Web 2.0 applications. OpenLaszlo technology has been widely adopted by application and service providers in the consumer, enterprise, education and government markets. Laszlo Systems provides updates, training and support for OpenLaszlo and offers rich-experience web-based digital life applications such as Laszlo Mail, built on OpenLaszlo. For more information about San Mateo, Calif.-based Laszlo Systems, visit www.laszlosystems.com.

Please join Laszlo Systems in San Francisco for an evening of pizza, beer and OpenLaszlo AJAX development on Thursday, March 16th. We are going to be previewing an exciting new DHTML runtime for the OpenLaszlo platform, enabling you to run applications in a browser without the Flash plug-in.

See here to let us know if you can make it. We're also looking for OpenLaszlo developers who would like to give a short demo at this event -- let us know on the same page.