<div id="peshoutbox"></div>
<script type="text/javascript">
   var so = new SWFObject("http://pure-essence.net/openLaszlo/shoutBox.swf", "shoutbox", "350", "478", "8", "#fff");
   so.addParam("wmode", "transparent");
   so.write("peshoutbox");
</script>

So the idea of writing this simple application is just to get my feet wet in Open Laszlo. As we are moving to web 2.0, writing RIAs will be the future for web programmers. Many frameworks now have ajax plugin. I wrote my first ajax chat script in 2005 without any libraries. I’m sure it’s much easier to write one with plugins. But it was still nice to write one from scratch. You then truly understand how it works. Competing with adobe’s flex, google’s GWT (ajax framework), possibly Microsoft’s new silverlight there is an open source project called open laszlo. If you look at their demo applications, it seems to be pretty powerful. I think it’s a very interesting alternative to ajax so I gave it a shot.