OT: www.visualthesaurus.com/ If only we could do this

[Bernard Devlin]

 >>
So, this goes to the whole discussion (viz-a-viz Lynn's query about how
Rev could integrate with browsers) of rev plug-in vs web page with links
to down load stand alones, vs some kind of embed object filled with Rev
CGI powered content, vs getting them to download a Super Revolution
Player... I thought this site offered yet another model.
<<

Is this the kind of thing you are interested in?

http://www.openlaszlo.org/demos

Laszlo apps used to just be provisioned by Flash.  They have been  
working on Ajax versions this last year.  They've also said all along  
that there's no reason why it couldn't be provisioned in a Java  
applet like the one in the thread title.  Looking at the similarities  
between the DHTML and the Flash versions of the calendar Laszlo has  
come a long way in being able to produce rich internet apps that will  
run without Flash.

These kinds of apps aren't completely independent of the browser - if  
you close the browser the Visual Thesaurus app will close, as will  
the Laszlo Flash calendar.  I believe that .swf files can be started  
as executables (if passed to a standalone Flash player), so in theory  
they could be independent of the browser.

There's nothing intrinsically stopping Runrev from producing a plug- 
in that works like Visual Thesaurus.  The Squeak people did it for  
Smalltalk.  There are several small companies doing it for their  
development environments (quite a few for 3D graphics and gaming).   
There is also http://dreamfactory.com/demo/developer.html - I believe  
that the guy behind DreamFactory was the original creator of  
Supercard (could be wrong there, so feel free to correct me).   It's  
just a question of priorities.

I've advocated that myself several times on this and other Rev- 
related forums.   But I'm almost of the opinion that the time for a  
Rev plug-in has passed.  With both Laszlo and Flex being free tools  
now, and with the state of Ajax toolkits coming from Yahoo and Google  
and dojo and ...


Bernard