*clipped from comp.lang.python. TS* ReportLab, Inc. (http://www.reportlab.com/) is a new company formed on January 21st to develop a new generation of reporting tools for the web and print. The team includes Andy Robinson (CEO and Chief Architect), Aaron Watters (Chief Technical Officer), Robin Becker (Quantitaive Analyst) and Gordon McMillan (Technical Consultant). ReportLab has seed capital and its first customer, and is opening offices in New Jersey and London. The core product is the ReportLab PDF library (formerly known as "pdfgen"). This can be used for - dynamic PDF reporting in real time on the Web - back office forms generation and database reports - adding a cross-platform 'Print Preview' capability to applications - electronic publishing In addition to this, the company has strong general expertise in all aspects of Python development, and will be working on data acquisition and transformation tools, and platform independent graphics solutions. Unlike other PDF generation libraries, ReportLab is intended to go beyond the 'Canvas' level to handle page layout with flowing text and frames, and XML-to-PDF conversion. ReportLab is, and will remain, 100% Open Source. It runs now, but we are seeking intensive feedback on the page layout API over the next few weeks from as wide a developer base as possible before 'freezing' the API. And of course there are many, many more features to add. The company is planning to generate revenue from consulting, service, support and training. There are two main forks to the plan: - an Open Source strategy aimed at making ReportLab a pervasive standard - developing an integrated commercial "Enterprise Reporting Engine" for portals and financial institutions To this end we will be working with 2-3 strategic customers over the next six months. The support arrangements are as follows: 1. The ReportLab library (formerly known as pdfgen) is available from http://www.reportlab.com/ 2. The latest development code is under CVS at http://reportlab.sourceforge.net 3. The mailing list for all discussion is reportlab-users@egroups.com. Go to http://www.egroups.com/group/reportlab-users to sign up. Andy Robinson CEO, ReportLab Inc. -- ========================================================= Tres Seaver tseaver@palladion.com 713-523-6582 Palladion Software http://www.palladion.com