JavaFX still has a long way to go!

I am not sure when it was launched but I just happened to see JavaFX site! One look things are quite impressive, but as you navigate I just lost the impression. I must agree that the effects are great but it was slow at certain point of time. Even made me feel that my browser had hung! But Firefox handled everything smooth. The site do not feature any demo on available widgets but have really good videos and access to preview SDK. Comparing JavaFX to its competitors, Flex and SilverLight are way ahead. Even though the FX coding seems very simple Sun needs to have a look at trimming JRE. They have been doing this with the lastest Java SE which is still in beta stage. JavaFX

Gosling talks about JavaFX

James Gosling, the co- founder of java talked with CNET News.com's Stephen Shankland about the new application platform, JavaFX. Gosling talks a bit about how JavaFX will compare to Adobe's Flash (Flex and Apollo) and Microsoft's Silverlight. Here is the video!

So, as the heat increasing in three camps (Adobe,Sun and Microsoft), what will happen to other small projects that have made their venture into this hot field. Two notable camps are Dekoh and Dojo toolkits offline web applications. Dekoh is making of the existing technologies including Adobe's Flash and is going to make use of JVM,HTML,Java script and XML for RIA development. Dojo on the other hand has come up with a caching proxy to save the web application and will use the existing scripting languages. Flex makes use of the MXML and Action script which is poplar among developer but JavaFX script is not! Developers will take time to adopt, learn and start using the new scripting language. For a developer, he will have to wait and see what the industry will accept and only time will tell! And for now... simply go about your daily work :)

Inside JavaFX !

Sun revealed its new product family: JavaFX for development on Desktop, Web , mobile and other electronic equipments like TV and Setup box. The product features a new content scripting language called JavaFX Script. For now, Sun and released JavaFX Mobile and JavaFX Script the first applications from the JavaFX family. Sun defines JavaFX as "JavaFX is a new family of Java technology-based products that will help content providers create and deploy rich Internet applications (RIA)." They also talk about its ability to create interactive content, applications and services from desktop to mobile devices to the living room.

At a glance JavaFX is going to make use of all advantages java currently provide - write-once-run-anywhere, portability, application security model, ubiquitous distribution and enterprise connectivity. JavaFX Script is going to help developers create interactive content and it will be not a procedural scripting language. At the same time JavaFX Mobile will be Sun's software system for mobile devices.

The new scripting language have the following features:

• JavaFX Script uses a declarative syntax for specifying GUI components, so a developer's code closely matches the actual layout of the GUI.
• Through declarative databinding and incremental evaluation, JavaFX Script enables developers to easily create and configure individual components by automatically synchronizing application data and GUI components.
• JavaFX Script will work with all major IDE. Plugin for Eclipse is already available!
• Unlike many other Java scripting languages, JavaFX Script is statically typed and will have most of the same code structuring, reuse, and encapsulation features that make it possible to create and maintain very large programs in Java.
• JavaFX Script is capable of supporting GUIs of any size or complexity and make use of Swing.

Sun has also started Project OpenJFX, which is a project of the OpenJFX community for sharing early versions of the JavaFX Script language and for collaborating on its development. The JavaFX Script downloads, NetBeans and Eclipse plugins are available here. You can also find demos for the script. And here is "hello world" fx script:

     import javafx.ui.*;

   Frame {
          title: "Hello World JavaFX"
          width: 200
          height: 50
          content: Label {
              text: "Hello World"
          }
          visible: true
   }

So to get started all you need is an IDE with JavaFX Script plugin and JDK 1.5 +. You can find the tutorial and language reference at https://openjfx.dev.java.net/.

JavaFX an alternative to Ajax?

Sun is all set to release a new product range during JavaOne conference. The new product is a java-based product family called JavaFX, which cover development of desktop,web and mobile. It will introduce a new scripting language called JavaFX Script.

Rich Green, Sun's executive vice president said the platform as "JavaFX is a complete software system from the metal on up" and "JavaFX Script is a scripting language focused on the content-authoring and content creation crowd. It is a means of creating visually impactful, high-performance, dramatic Web and network-facing artifacts or experiences that run all the way from the desktop running Java SE (Standard Edition) all the way down to mobile devices powered by JavaFX Mobile".

JavaFX Script will focus on user experiences on the interface and highly animated content. It will be also easier to use thus development of the application will be easy and the JavaFX is not a procedural language. The programmers will be able to make use of the existing Swing and 2D APIs. and finally JavaFX will be open source!

So, JavaFX is Sun's answer to Abode's Flex and Apollo and Microsoft's Silverlight? I would say YES! So, JavaFX will offer an alternative to AJAX and also vies with Silverlight and Adobe's Flash (Flex and Apollo) and will enter RIA competition through this. Dekoh , another RIA project based on Java will also turn out to be a competitor for JavaFX. To get more on JavaFX we will have have to wait a few hours and I will update as soon as I get more information.