|
WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
Wakanda Offers the First End-to-End JavaScript Development Platform
San Jose - 4D announced today the pre-launch of Wakanda, the first open source, end-to-end JavaScript platform dedicated to developing and deploying professional Web applications. This new platform is available at www.wakanda.org.
Offering a complete and unified environment based on the JavaScript language, the latest Web standards (HTML5, CSS3, etc.), and the direct manipulation of business logic, Wakanda aims to revolutionize the development and deployment of applications from the cloud on all types of desktop and touch interfaces, such as tablets and smartphones.
Three years of development
After three years of research and development, Wakanda has spent several months in a private test phase with a panel of fifty early users and experts from various technological backgrounds. Today, the public release of the Wakanda Developer Preview marks a major step toward the launching of a beta and subsequent production version in the upcoming months.
Developers of enterprise Web and mobile applications, and more generally all programmers who wish to learn JavaScript, can download and discover this innovative platform at www.wakanda.org. A forum, blog, and social media tools are available to users to enhance the Wakanda community.
Laurent Ribardière, president, founder and CTO of 4D explains, "In light of the rapid growth of languages and components that one must master to create data-driven business applications usable on desktops, smartphones, and tablets, we sought to offer a new, simpler, and more productive approach. This project leverages our technological know-how and in-depth understanding of the needs of this market."
End-to-end JavaScript, Web apps, Internet mobile and cloud
"Choosing JavaScript as the sole language to develop both client and server sides, from the manipulation of data to the interface, was an audacious bet three years ago," continues Ribardière. "Seeing the growing passion that JavaScript enjoys today, we are convinced that it’s a strong trend in the standardization and simplification of the Web."
As a universal language in Web development, JavaScript has the advantage of being natively understood by all current mobile devices.
Beyond the use of JavaScript on client and server sides, Wakanda profoundly simplifies access to data by automatically managing dynamic links between manipulated objects and data storage.
True to the spirit of 4D, Wakanda offers several graphical user interfaces. The Wakanda platform is comprised of the following three elements:
Wakanda Studio is a multi-project IDE that allows you to graphically create your interface, edit your code (JavaScript, HTML, etc.), and manage your application’s data model. Wakanda Studio also includes a powerful debugger.
Wakanda Server integrates a NoSQL datastore, a multi-threaded HTTP server, and the JavaScript engine from WebKit, which is one of the fastest on the market.
Wakanda Framework is automatically deployed on all browsers. It is comprised of a data provider that communicates with Wakanda Server as well as an intelligent interface for widgets based on JavaScript, CSS3, and HTML5.
A pricing model based on a double-license: open source and enterprise
4D's goal is to facilitate access to the Wakanda platform to as many people as possible, while establishing a large and dynamic community.
"We are convinced that open source is a powerful approach in the development and adoption of middleware," says Luc Hollande, CEO of 4D. "We plan to optimize our marketing efforts by developing a community that freely uses our platform’s open source license. In this way, we can offer an annual subscription that will provide certain guarantees, support, and the elasticity needed for deploying mission-critical applications on a large scale or even in the cloud, whether public or private."
"Our goal is to give birth to a strong and sustained developer community, guaranteeing the long-term viability of solutions based on Wakanda. The coexistence of profitability for everyone and open source principles is a win-win approach." says Hollande.
4D has received great interest from its customers for Wakanda’s innovative approach. Several projects are already progressing with numerous clients in the United States, Germany, France, and Japan, which is assisting 4D in the rapid release of a production-ready version of Wakanda.
About 4D
With over 25 years of experience in the field of software engineering for professional applications, the 4D group, whose world headquarters is in Paris, offers developers and enterprises an integrated software platform that speeds and simplifies the development of desktop, client-server and business Web applications. 4D software is used in over 70 countries by over 7000 software publishers and system integrators, serving millions of end users. www.4d.com
|
