[JDEV] Announcing New Windows Jabber Client from IBM

[Michael F Lin]

Hi, I'm a programmer with Internet Technology at IBM. I have finished the
first version of a Windows Jabber client written in Sash, a new rapid
application development technology we have been working on. The new client,
SashJab, is based on JabberCOM. It is designed as an easy-to-use client
with support for group chat, HTML messages, WYSIWYG editing, and a high
degree of user customizability. It's targeted toward end users. It has just
been released, so proceed with caution, but we have been using it
internally for several weeks now and it seems pretty stable.

You can grab it at:

http://sash.alphaworks.ibm.com/sashjab/

You will need to install the latest version (released today) of the IBM
Sash Weblication Manager. This is a runtime environment that allows Sash
applications to run. It should be a very smooth, automated installation
process - just initiate the SashJab installation and the runtime will be
set up automatically. The total download size for the Weblication Manager +
SashJab will be about 3.5 megabytes. You will need IE5.5 too.

Since Sash is a new technology it is probably worth writing a quick blurb
about it here. Basically it provides access to the underlying operating
system to "weblications" written in JavaScript, DHTML, and XML, which run
independently from the web browser. These weblications are in many ways
indistinguishable from standard Windows applications: Sash weblications can
talk to COM ports, system tray, Explorer shell extensions, control panel
applets, desktop toolbars, and more. This is all wrapped by a fine-grained
layer of security so that no access to any system resource can occur
without the user's authorization. From a developers' perspective, Sash
provides rapid development of integrated applications with no Windows
progamming knowledge required, one-click deployment of network-based
applications, a highly extensible core object model, and a sophisticated
WDE (Weblication Development Environment - our IDE). Sash Weblications for
Windows will share a lowest common denominator set of APIs with SashXB for
Linux,
 a Mozilla-based open source project currently checked into the GNOME
source tree but still in early stages of development.

See the Sash home page (linked from the above URL), especially the Sash
tour, for more information.

So, anyway, SashJab's JavaScript/DHTML source code will be available on the
site as well as soon as I get around to packaging it (later this week
probably). To play around with it, you'll need to install the WDK
(Weblication Developer Kit, which includes the WDE).

Please feel free to get in touch with me anytime (JID: mlin at jabber.org). I
also hang around on the JDEV chat room often. Of course I am totally open
to any comments, suggestions, requests, diffs, etc.

Thanks,
Mike Lin
Internet Technology
IBM Corporation
mflin at us.ibm.com