[Laszlo-announce] Announcing OpenLaszlo 4.0

[Jim Grandy]

We are extremely pleased and proud to announce that OpenLaszlo 4.0 is  
now available. This is the first official release of the new multi- 
runtime edition of OpenLaszlo, complete with a native browser DHTML  
(”Ajax”) runtime, a heavily revamped Flash (7, 8, 9) runtime, and  
much more. With OpenLaszlo 4.0, you can compile source LZX  
applications for any supported target with a single mouse click.

OpenLaszlo 4.0 is available from http://www.openlaszlo.org/download

This release of OpenLaszlo is built on a new kernel architecture that  
abstracts away platform differences. Also, with OL4, we have switched  
to an inheritance-based class system that tracks the emerging  
ECMAScript 4 standard. These new language features have been  
implemented in the LFC core to support (and extend) JavaScript 2  
`class` declarations portably. This means that the OpenLaszlo  
platform is well engineered to keep up with emerging JavaScript  
standards and to support new target runtimes.

In addition to literally hundreds of improvements to all aspects of  
the platform software and documentation, we have added new features,  
such as support for streaming media. The documentation tools have  
been re-implemented in order to to make them easier to maintain and  
also to give us more possibilities for arranging and accessing the  
data in the Reference Manual. Eventually, this will allow us to  
provide better cross-referencing, better indexing, more user control  
over presentation of information, and more options for printing and  
displaying the documentation.

We have put a lot of effort into improving our open source processes.  
The tools we use to build, test, and analyze OpenLaszlo have matured  
significantly with OL4. We have changed to using Subversion, for  
source control, in order to enable a more open development process.  
The build is now based on ant 1.6.5, rather than ant 1.5. We have  
created a new testing tool, lztest, for automated testing, to  
complement lzunit, our tool for application- and component-level  
testing. We have created a suite of benchmarks and benchmark analysis  
tools.

By any criterion, this is the most ambitious and significant release  
in the history of OpenLaszlo.

The OpenLaszlo project aspires to be truly open and inclusive. Raju  
Bitter, our OpenLaszlo community manager, is on board to answer  
questions, streamline processes, and generally make it easier for you  
to play a vital part in this platform’s success.

Post questions and comments to laszlo-user at openlaszlo.org or to the  
OpenLaszlo Forum. Please report bugs, especially regressions from  
OpenLaszlo 3.x, to our bug database at http://jira.openlaszlo.org/.

OpenLaszlo 4.0 is the culmination of a project that began more than a  
year ago, and it embodies the contributions of dozens of community  
members from around the world. Thank you, and congratulations to all  
of us!
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