[Zope] [ZGotW] ZGotW#4 -- addendum: ReportLab announcment

[Tres Seaver]

*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