Topic Archive: Lazlo

Monster.com’s Job Search Beta Runs on OpenLaszlo

Dietrich Kappe, Thursday, May 31, 2007 @ 4:06 am

So what are the big boys doing? Are they using Dojo, Prototype, etc.? After another disappointing stroll through the top 100 sites (a few more uses of Scriptaculous, yawn), I discovered that Monster.com is in Beta with a spiffy new OpenLaszlo Job Search app. Unfortunately it uses Flash, not the new Ajax runtime, but I'm guessing they started development well before the release of 4.0. I'd be curious to know if they are considering a flashless version for the future.

Technorati : ajax, flash, monster.com, openlaszlo

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Open Laszlo DHTML Milestone

Dietrich Kappe, Monday, July 3, 2006 @ 9:00 am

Ever since Laszlo Systems announced that they would be targeting DHTML as well as Flash, I've been peeking into their source repository from time to time, hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive "Legals" (horrible name), the runtime that supports DHTML. Well, this past Thursday, on the Open Laszlo Project blog, they announced a milestone release of this mythical beast. From the entry:

Late last week, the OpenLaszlo project reached a huge milestone: release of the first source snapshot of our multiple-runtimes architecture, code named "Legals". The purpose of this snapshot is to deliver infrastructure, tools, and architecture sufficient to allow broad community participation in the project.

We began Legals back in January because we felt it was finally time to invest in OpenLaszlo's potential as a multi-runtime application framework. Adobe had released an initial beta of Flash 9 (then called Flash 8.5), and it was clear to us that it would be essentially an entirely new VM: new bytecode set, many improvements to the ActionScript language, and substantially revised APIs. In order to support Flash 9 we would need to build a new compiler backend and new runtime libraries.

If you're viewing an lzx file from the OpenLaszlo server, you'll need to tack a parameter onto it to get it to display the DHTML, i.e. test.lzx?lzr=dhtml.

So far, I've only been able to get it to display two text components. Adding in a button or anything else gives you a big nothing. Definitely, as it says, a work in progress on the DHTML side.

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OpenLaszlo Developments Afoot

Dietrich Kappe, Sunday, July 2, 2006 @ 12:56 am

One way that AJAX frameworks are going to be embraced is by providing lots of widgets. Another is by signing up other companies to develop applications using their framework. Nothing spells credibility than working software. To that end Laszlo Systems has announced that someone's going to be adding more oomph to their email software product built using OpenLaszlo:

Laszlo Systems, developer of OpenLaszlo, the leading advanced open source
platform for building and deploying Ajax applications, and Goodmail
Systems, creator of the CertifiedEmail system for trusted email, today
announced that Laszlo Mail will support the recognition and presentation of
CertifiedEmail messages. Offered for license to businesses and
communications service providers, Laszlo Mail delivers the functionality
and responsiveness of desktop email without requiring any client software
installation. Now with CertifiedEmail, Laszlo Mail will have the added
benefit of protecting users from phishing and other forms of email-based
fraud.

Hmm, the former Flash product is now "the leading advanced open source
platform for building and deploying Ajax applications." Last time I looked at their source tree it didn't do DHTML yet.

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The Javascript Hackers Dilemna

Dietrich Kappe, Wednesday, April 12, 2006 @ 11:43 pm

Ajax has brought a new focus onto many parts of the browser, but none more so than Javascript. What started out as a rip and run embedded language called "Livescript" in Netscape Navigator has evolved into a rich language that supports sophisticated OO programming and design styles. But most Javascript written today remains primitive, poorly designed and implemented -- hack jobs, so to speak. The most you'll see on many commercial sites is the Javascript divided up into procedural utility libraries. Just look at the excellent book "JavaScript Anthology" (see a very illuminating review of it here). Most of the code in the book is very procedural; that seems to be the expectation of Javascript -- ignore most of its capabilities by writing little procedural snippets.

So here comes Ajax, along with tons of other tools and platforms that embed Javascript: OpenLaszlo (flash UI), Kettle (ETTL tool), and the various projects that embed Rhino, the Mozilla Projects Java-based Javascript interpreter. On their heels come an army of sophisticated and knowledgeable programmers who have different standards. These guys are relentlessly raising the bar on design and style in Javascript. The days of rip-and-run Javascript are over.

So, what's a Javascript Hacker to do? Maybe it's time for a second edition of Javascript Objects, a title that went nowhere in 1998.

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