[Laszlo-user] OpenLaszlo IDE....

[David Temkin]

Great to see all of the discussion about IDEs for OpenLaszlo!

So.... something is going on in the IDE area here at Laszlo Systems,  
and this seems like a good time to share what we're doing with the  
community.

Laszlo is in the process of developing an IDE for OpenLaszlo  
developers. We've been hard at work on this since late last year. It's  
Eclipse-based, and is focused on code-based development (as opposed to  
visual drag-and-drop development). It's got plenty of features for LZX  
developers, and knows a lot about the structure of LZX code. This goes  
well beyond the level of XML syntax and built-in tags -- it includes  
user-defined classes and attributes, inheritance, JS syntax assist/ 
completion, direct access to documentation and more. It also supports  
breakpoint-based debugging of LZX code, and is packaged as a double- 
click self-contained installer for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Our main goals with this product are to make OpenLaszlo development  
(1) more approachable and (2) more productive.

We have not yet decided exactly how the product will be distributed,  
though it is unlikely to be open source. It will be available later  
this year. (Sorry, can't be more specific now!)

That said, it'd be great to see other IDEs. The more the better --  
especially with IDEs and editors, one size rarely fits all. And our  
upcoming product does not (yet) address the visual design need.

Over the coming months, we'll have more to say about the product, and  
we'll make preview and beta releases available to the community along  
the path to release.

Thought you'd like to know!

David Temkin
Founder & CTO, Laszlo Systems