August 26, 2007

OpenLaszlo vs Flex

When talking with some colleagues on the subject: Java Swing rich client vs rich web-client RIA, we came across the new Flex2 and Flex3 technology as alternative to Web2.0 AJAX styled RIA.
I first came in touch with Flex at the JavaPolis event last year, but I wasn't too excited, being more of a desktop application guy. But when you start to think about it, it makes sense in such a comparison. It seems to improve productivity, is widely available on all common platforms, is configurable, styleable, ... what not!?
So in my search for a good comparison of Flex vs other technologies I came across another contender: OpenLaszlo - 'the premier open-source platform for rich internet applications'. After seeing the demo applications I was amazed by this framework. It's so easy to do many of the most common things and the best part is that it generates both Flash and DHTML so it's not only dependant on your Flash plugin. Flex also has a lot of nice demos, somehow feels a little smoother and now has a free SDK. Now it's just a mather of trying them out to determince which one is the best to work with. To be continued...

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