elliot winard

It’s funny - I’ve been working on making interfaces and UI-heavy applications over 10 years - first ASCII-based games and then PEEKing and POKEing my way into non-text games. Then it was X11 development in the mid-90’s - building widget-based application UIs and a frame-based animation engine and at the same time making HyperCard stacks. When time came to get a job I started working at Macromedia on Director, Flash and Flex. I dabbled in CSS and browser JavaScript but found it frustrating to keep up with the latest browser idiosyncrasies.

Now browsers are catching up with Plugin-based rich-content like Flash & Director. At AJAXWorld 2007, I worked the Laszlo booth for part of the 3-day conference & walked around to sample the tech of other companies. After doing the rounds I really feel like the stuff we’re doing at Laszlo – releasing and supporting the open-source OpenLaszlo compiler & server, working on Laszlo Webtop – is top-notch technology. I’m truly psyched to be working at Laszlo.

Why do my engineers need to learn another language? asked a few folks. When I demonstrated the simplicity of writing LZX and the complexity of apps like LzMail, LzPix and Webtop they were impressed. When I showed how you could tweak a query arg and generate AJAX they were floored.

I can’t wait until we get Webtop running in OpenLaszlo 4.0 and offer the ability for companies to iteratively port their existing web layer over to Webtop.

Last night Laszlo sponsored a cruise down to the Statue of Liberty and then back up the Hudson. The multicontinental crowd loved it. You’ve never really lived until you’ve seen a dancefloor full of European and American tech folks doing the electric slide wearing funny hats on a boat off the coast of Manhattan.

Laszlo seriously rocked that conference.