OpenLaszlo review

OpenLaszlo is an open source platform for creating zero-install web applications with the user interface capabilities of desktop client software.

OpenLaszlo programs are written in XML and JavaScript and transparently compiled to Flash and, with OpenLaszlo 4, DHTML. The OpenLaszlo APIs provide animation, layout, data binding, server communication, and declarative UI. An OpenLaszlo application can be as short as a single source file, or factored into multiple files that define reusable classes and libraries.

OpenLaszlo
Download

It is “write once, run everywhere.” An OpenLaszlo application developed on one machine will run on all leading Web browsers on all leading desktop operating systems.

Open Laszlo Architecture

With OpenLaszlo 4, the OpenLaszlo architecture has been remodularized into a true multi-runtime platform. OpenLaszlo uses standard ECMAScript Release 3 with some ECMAScript Release 4 extensions as its scripting language. The compiler translates this script to an intermediate language that is then processed by multiple back-ends to translate into an appropriate format for the destination runtime.

The OpenLaszlo runtime library has been refactored into two parts: multiple kernels containing runtime-specific code, and a cross-runtime library.The cross-runtime (portable) part of the library is written in ‘extended ECMA 3′ (i.e., ECMA 3 with the extensions we added from ECMA 4). The kernels are written in the native dialect of the destination runtime (e.g., ActionScript or Javascript), which really turns out to be ECMA 3 plus the destination runtime API.

The core OpenLaszlo runtime library (also called the core LFC, for “Laszlo Foundation Class”) delivers a common baseline of functionality across all supported runtimes. This gives developers a rich environment in which to build full-featured web applications. In addition, OpenLaszlo 4 includes runtime-specific extensions so that the particular benefits of targeting a runtime are not lost to OpenLaszlo application developers. For example, extensions allow access to Flash’s streaming media capabilities.

Open Laszlo Architecture

Tags: OpenLaszlo, open source, code, runtime, download, review, open source utils