OpenLaszlo 4.1 has finally been released
July 2nd, 2008I was really happy when I scanned through my RSS reader today and discovered that OpenLaszlo 4.1 has finally been released! Laszlo first announced the work on the DHTML runtime in March 2006. I remembed when I first tested the LZPix application and how deeply impressed I was. Much time has passed since then and many community members have been disappointed by the information policy around the OpenLaszlo project. The 4.1 release was pushed back again and again, and there were no official announcements to the OpenLaszlo community when they could expect the 4.1 release to happen.
You wonder which browser are supported by the 4.1 release? Here’s a quote from the announcement in the OpenLaszlo blog:
OpenLaszlo 4.1 has been fully-qualified across the following browser/platform combinations: Safari3/OSX, Firefox2/OSX, Internet Explorer 7/WinXP, Firefox 2/WinXP, and Firefox 2/Linux. We have tested the full suite of demos, samplers, and example applications with the requirement that, when possible, DHTML applications behave the same as their SWF counterparts.
Looking for IE6 support here? It’s not there, but I always thought that - since all DHTML functionality is available in Flash8 - IE6 support in DHTML is not that important. If someone uses IE6, just deliver the same application as SWF8 to them instead of DHTML.
The amazing thing about OpenLaszlo is how well the transition from Flash to Ajax/DHTML and now even the upcoming Flash9/SWF9 runtime works. The LZX compiler has to support so different languages as ActionScript2, JavaScript and ActionScript3. SWF9 support should be released some time this year with version 4.2, and it’s already possible to compile smaller OpenLaszlo applications (like the Weather App) for SWF9.
I have the feeling that we’ll see a mobile runtime for OpenLaszlo in the near future which would turn OpenLaszlo into the RIA technology with the best outreach when it comes to supported browsers and technologies (DHTML/Ajax, Flash8, Flash9 and future runtimes). With the DHTML runtime in place it’s a lot easier to support other runtimes like Microsoft Silverlight, once Silverlight has a bigger market share. I personally don’t expect a Silverlight runtime in the near future, but who knows.
At this point I want to congratulate the whole OpenLaszlo team to the release and for the amazing work you have been doing in the past years. Laszlo entered a technology field which is targeted by huge companies like Microsoft, Google, Sun and Adobe. Feature-wise it’s not easy to compete with these giants, but OpenLaszlo and Laszlo always manage to impress me. Seeing the 4.1 release as well as the progress on the SWF9 runtime I’m convinced that Laszlo is on the right track to an even larger success.
