OpenLazlo

A friend of mine gave me a buzz: “Check it out, OpenLaszlo”.

A free open source AJAX toolkit, OpenLazlo gives an XML based language with embedded JavaScript that compiles into Flash or DTHML. Originally optimized for FireFox, but claims full support for Internet Explorer, including 7.0. No JSON, but XML based dataset with XPath query is provided instead. Animation is OpenLaszlo’s sweet spot. Demos are sexy, and “Laszlo in 10 minutes” is fun. Although I still more like fine-grain control, like with Atlas, OpenLaszlo declarative style ramps up web development time.

Morale: AJAX is cool, Open Source rules, friends matter.