About 5 or so years ago I was needed a way to dynamically create Flash (swf) files via C#. While searching Google I stumbled onto something called “RIA”. Reading further I found myself witness to something new and exciting…I felt challenged by the simplicity XAML abstractions. I looked at what was in the market regarding XAML vendors and decided to go with Laszlosystems. It was a easy choice to make but a painful learning curve. The technology was ahead of its time. I had no learning reference material… extremely limited free support in the USA. Rather I should say support was only available to $$$ customers. So, I got a job for a company that put MAJOR BUCK$ into rebuilding their flagship software using OPENLASZLO…I was excited to be hired for such an ambitious project. I was there for about 6 months. During my first month I began hearing the hair pulling stories of performance problems and missed expectations toward Laszlo. Weeks of complaining, many late nights of re-thinking how to work code to reduce negative performance. And not to mention the project cost going up and up. I soon began to realize that my employment was at risk right along with the commitment to building a Laszlo solution. To make a long story short…Laszlo was shelved and I was released along with may others! So, if you ask me: “Given what I know know about Openlaszlo, Flex 3, and Siverlight?” My answer is simply OpenLaszlo will always have my respect and support because they had realized the vision of XAML/RIA best with OpenLaszlo. Flex 3 is a “Johny come late” response to XAML and falls short of the Laszlo’s rich abstraction…and MS SilverLight is just too OVER-THE-TOP. Unfortunately, I will soon be at a decision cross-road at which time I must decide to abandon years of OpenLaszlo development effort and re-code using FLEX 3.

Laszlo is a great product if one has the $$$ for support…I however do not. So, it seems that whenever i need help to integrate a FLASH/FLEX/SWF module I always get lost…and frankly I am tired of digging for answers. And, by the way whenever I attempted to contact LASZLO I wasn’t given the time of day…so, for my money Laszlo helped me appreciate FLEX 3, Degrafa, and other XAML/RIA products that painlessly produce *.SWF.

It’s now 2.35am and I have nothing more to say…have a look at http://rgia.org/demo. Search for “Tree” number one (1) and give my site a walk…let me know what you think (kevin) night

the dhtml has yet to be released and in PR4 still has some gaps. Once it is released, it sure changes the equation for those considering Flash/Flex/Ajax/OpenLaszlo.

For what it’s worth, I accept some of your criticisms. As for the name calling, I’ve discovered that when you hold out your thoughts and writings in public, you sometimes make mistakes. If you do that, you admit the mistakes, make ammends and move on. If someone calls you a FUD slinger or dense, you have to develop a thick skin.

I’m someone who has checked out both flex and openlaszlo. I have not extensively used either, and would be very interested in an intelligent comparison, which it seems will not be coming from this blog. Trying to peg openlaszlo to flash, when the dhtml aspect is so well known? Perspective lite, anyone?