OpenLaszlo

OpenLaszlo was invented by Laszlo Systems, a company based in San Mateo, California. The main difference between OpenLaszlo and Macromedia Flash is that OpenLaszlo is modeled as an application development suite, rather than a tool for producing movies.

OpenLaszlo comes with a language called LZX, which is based on the familiar XML and JavaScript. As a result, many beginners to OpenLaszlo already feel at home even before they start. An object-oriented programming language, LZX is case-sensitive and event-driven. JavaScript is primarily used for writing event handlers.

An LZX application generates a Flash file or dynamic HTML (DHTML). Choose the latter if you want to deploy your program as an AJAX application. You can write animation, play MP3 files, create e-commerce applications, develop Web Services clients, and so on with it. You can view demos by visiting www.openlaszlo.com In addition, LaszloMail (www.laszlomail.com) is a sleek Web mail application written entirely in LZX.

OpenLaszlo provides a compiler that can convert lzx source files to Flash or DHTML. This compiler was written in Java but understanding Java is not necessary to write LZX applications. All you need to do is install Java and the OpenLaszlo suite. In addition, for smooth compilation, OpenLaszlo uses Apache Tomcat, an open source servlet/JSP container. You can find more information on Tomcat on its Web site:

http://tomcat.apache.org/