Tony Patton at builderau.com.au takes a look at OpenLaszlo with his article Build Web applications once, run everywhere with OpenLaszlo.

According to Tony, Developers face many architecture choices when building Web applications. The target client is often a key factor when deciding which development platform to use.

OpenLaszlo can help you clear this hurdle by delivering a runtime that runs on all browsers. OpenLaszlo provides a platform for building rich Internet applications that may mimic desktop application functionality. Here's a closer look at OpenLaszlo's features, architecture, language, and development environment.

SD Times 100
4th Annual Awards List Recognizes Top Companies in Software Development Industry

Laszlo Systems, the original developer of OpenLaszlo, the leading advanced open source platform for building and deploying Ajax applications, has been named as one of the 100 leading innovators in software development by the Software Development (SD) Times.

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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.

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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.

Here is an article from IBM providing an introductory overview of the OpenLaszlo language and application development framework.

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Music discovery service uses an open-source development platform to connect users to the songs they love.
- February 13, 2006

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David Temkin, CTO of Laszlo Systems, discusses the recent announcement of Open Ajax, Laszlo plans for its platform to run on Ajax/DHTML.

[Listen]
- February 13, 2006

David Temkin, CTO of Laszlo Systems, explains that while the OpenAjax works to provide basic frameworks for Ajax, the challenge still lies with finding a good client-side developer.

[Listen]

Adobe, Laszlo Systems and Nexaweb Technologies Honored by Roundarch for Contributions to Rich Internet Applications
Wednesday December 14, 2:00 pm ET

Roundarch, a user-centric Web design and technology services provider, today announced it has awarded its first annual Interactive Experience Awards to three recipients: David Mendels, senior vice president of the Enterprise and Developer Solutions Business Unit at Adobe; David Temkin, founder of Laszlo Systems; and Coach Wei, founder and CTO of Nexaweb Technologies -- for their pioneering efforts in the rich internet application (RIA) space. The Roundarch Interactive Experience Awards are given to companies that best represent the advancement of Web experiences through the integration of user-centric design and advanced technology.

"We singled out these three companies because each is breaking ground in the RIA space," said Jeff Maling, President and Chief Experience Officer at Roundarch. "These three companies are tackling traditional Web challenges -- such as Webmail, on-line commerce and on-line banking -- and transforming them into richer, more interactive and ultimately more profitable on-line experiences. They are also defining new uses for the Web by using rich internet technology to increase customer profitability and improve employee productivity."

Congratulations to David, and to the OpenLaszlo and Laszlo Mail teams!

One of our favorite OpenLaszlo applications, Pandora, has been slashdotted.

kramthegram writes

The Music Genome Project, an attempt to define music by it's traits in a way similar to DNA defines traits in humans has led to the development of Pandora. Pandora uses the song choices you make to see what traits appeal to you and present you with custom radio station. While limiting you to thumbs up or thumbs down, the "gene" heuristics allows for a very quick adaptation to your musical tastes." Not sure how deep it goes, and I'm not sure I like that it led me from The Who to Styx and Def Leppard. But this is a neat little tool for discovering new music.

Pandora.com is now the top Google hit for "pandora". Not bad for a company for a web site that's a few months old, competing with an established Greek mythological character!