Two of the most prominent products built with OpenLaszlo have decided to not use the DHTML runtime: Gliffy and OpenMeetings. Is there any larger application available on a public URL, which utilizes both the DHTML and SWF runtime? I haven't seen a single one since the launch of the DHTML runtime in March 2007.
Gliffy: http://blogs.atlassian.com/2012/04/how-gliffy-is-managing-the-risk-of-re-writing-their-product-in-html5/ " Speed up development time OpenLaszlo, the language Gliffy was first written with, compiles to Flash byte code. Even on the best laptops money can buy, we were seeing up to 30 second compile times between making code changes. By moving to Javascript / HTML5, a slow compilation step is no longer needed, and the code/test cycle is down to 5 seconds or less." In the comment section: "Does Chris know that OpenLaszlo now compiles to HTML5 ? Did they stray too far from the OpenLazlo foundation class library to just do a recompile with minimal changes? Hi Mark, Yes, I’m aware of the HTML capabilities of OpenLaszlo (before I started Gliffy, I worked at Laszlo Systems). We did explore the HTML capabilities and support of OpenLaszlo before taking on the massive re-write project. Unfortunately, we concluded that OpenLaszlo wasn’t the best tool for our needs for a variety of reasons. -chris" The OpenMeetings mailing list discussion: http://goo.gl/VO7EP "There have been no votes against using OpenLaszlo and compile to DHTML. However the OpenLaszlo project seems currently no more maintained. There has been no release since 2010 of the project. The comunity has downsized by factor of 10. This is the community activity in the last years: http://www.openlaszlo.org/pipermail/laszlo-dev/2012-June/024912.html It is likely that if we are switching to DHTML that we will run into issues as soon as new browser features of HTML5 will come up as the Openlaszlo platform does not implement them. It would be actually our task not only to develop OpenMeetings but also OpenLaszlo. As DHTML compilation is a quite future orientated task I think we should choose technology that support mobile devices and constantly improves its cross-browser capibilities. And last but not least the question is of course: How can we attract new users? Chossing OpenLaszlo does actively look-out people as they are not willing to learn it. We will have much better chances to find new contributors if we choose a technology people are familiar with." See this discussion on Stackoverflow as well: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12296700/is-openlaszlos-dual-runtime-approach-html5-and-flash-swf-still-valid - Raju
