Will JavaFX Be A Big Story At JavaOne 2008?
JavaOne 2008 is almost upon us. What will the big story be this year? In order to figure that out, it’s worth taking a look back to see what the big story was at JavaOne 2007. A year ago, the big announcements were around the new JavaFX platform, most of which simply didn’t exist. There were three parts to that first JavaFX announcement:
- JavaFX Script - a new declarative scripting language, that would compile to Java byte code, primarily meant for building rich graphical user interfaces
- JavaFX Designer - a new WYSIWYG rapid developer tool for creating JavaFX Script-based interfaces
- JavaFX Mobile - a new mobile phone operating environment, based on Linux and Java, that, for the first time, would bring full Java SE to mobile phones, including the ability to run JavaFX Script
A year ago, JavaFX Script was very much in its infancy - there was lots of demo-ware, but no language specification; and no JavaFX Script compiler. JavaFX Designer simply didn’t exist at all and work hadn’t even begun on building it. JavaFX Mobile existed only in the form of some then recently acquired assets from a failed start-up called SavaJe; it certainly wasn’t ready for prime time.
A year on, we can expect to see some significant advances. During the past year, we’ve seen some progress on JavaFX Script. However, we’ve seen absolutely nothing on the JavaFX Designer and JavaFX Mobile fronts. A year on, I expect Sun Microsystems will have refined its thinking about the JavaFX platform as whole. Here’s what I’m expecting to see on the JavaFX front at this year’s JavaOne.
- JavaFX Script - I’m expecting demos showing that it’s blazingly fast and doesn’t consume huge system resources. The big problem with the demoware last year was that the early JavaFX Script was slow and was a resource hog
- JavaFX Designer - I’m expecting JavaFX Designer, a brand new tool, to get its world premiere at this years show.
- JavaFX Mobile - If this project is still alive, then we need an update of some kind. At the very least, I’m expecting demos that show “JavaFX Script”-based apps running on mobile phones (and maybe even on Blu-ray). To be impressive, there will need to be an SDK, simulator/emulators made available for download etc (similar to what Google has done with Android).
So, back to the original question. Will JavaFX be a big story again this year? The answer to that depends on the progress that’ s been made. If the new JavaFX Designer tool looks amazing, that would be a huge story; after all the designer tool is what will make or break the JavaFX platform. With the right tool, it will be possible to rapidly builds amazing user interfaces, and without being an expert in hand-coding JavaFX Script (which few people, so far, have bothered to learn). For JavaFX Mobile to create a splash, we will need to see something tangible - a great SDK would be the perfect start.
In summary, if JavaFX has progressed well as a platform behind the scenes for the past year, expect to see it make headlines at JavaOne this year, as part of an even bigger story - that Java is on its way back as a platform for building Rich Internet Applications for the desktop and on mobile devices.
Asam Bashir wrote:
Seems to save-face, after ridiculous post-iPhone SDK announcement, they will be making some kind of announcement using Innaworks alcheMO algorithm - but it’s a waste of time, Mac developers don’t need or want it…
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 5:39 pm ¶
simon wrote:
Well, I can see why they’d feature it at JavaOne - people will be interested to hear about it and maybe see a demo. It’s nothing to do with Sun though.
The devil is always in the detail with these kind of translators. The bottom line is: if it works well, then by definition it’s a great way for Java developers to be able to instantly develop iPhone apps, without having to spend time learning the iPhone SDK and Objective C.
That’s really a hell of a big “if” though… it would be majorly impressive piece of work by Innaworks if this product *did* work well.
Actually, I thought an interesting part of Sun’s comment about this was that they suggested they were in discussions in with Apple about how to include Java on iPhone. Having said that, it’s possibly not all that interesting - my guess is that the “discussions” aren’t all that productive
By the way, I’m pretty sure plenty of Mac developers *would* be intererested in having great Java support in iPhone (not crappy Java support, obviously). When iPhone was first announced, Apple’s was so over-run with Mac developers asking for Java support on iPhone that Apple had to ask people to stop requesting it.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 6:30 pm ¶
Mr X wrote:
It’s not completely true that their has been no news on the designer - watch the video on this blog entry
http://weblogs.java.net/blog/joshy/archive/2008/04/back_from_austr.html
skip to 7 mins in and he basically say’s he will be proud of the Java FX designer - this time NEXT year and a little later on talks about he’s not sure yet whether they will be talking about it a Java One this year. That basically says they are nowhere near shipping.
As you say much progress has been made on JavaFX script but there is still a lot to do - they have been focusing on the basics. For these sorts of things it’s always a trade off between rushing something out quickly and having to live with the mistakes you make for a long time, or taking the time to make it real good but risking it being irrelevant.
The really good thing has been the overall focus - as Joshy alludes to in the video - they have trying to improve all aspects, deployment, underlying Java2D as well as more designer friendly dev tools.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 7:24 pm ¶
simon wrote:
Interesting vid… Joshy seems pretty excited about what’s going to be announced at JavaOne this year!
You make an excellent point about improving the underlying Java SE platform. Sun is well on the way to delivering something pretty impressive on this aspect - still some bugs to squash, but they seem to be doing a pretty great job (at least on Windows XP and Vista).
For the first time in the history of Java, applets are starting to look genuinely interesting as a platform for delivering real (rich internet) applications. That actually buys Sun some time to get JavaFX Script right. As you know, it’s perfectly possible to build amazing graphical user interfaces by using Java. With “Update 10″ it will be possible to build amazing applets and deploy them inside browsers, and the new plug-in should allow interesting interactions between applet and browser.
As for the JavaFX Designer tool, if it’s possible, I think Sun pretty much *has* to demo it at JavaOne this year - it’s going to be such an important aspect of making the whole JavaFX platform a success.
It’s fine (although not ideal) if it won’t be at Version 1.0 for another year. It’s fine (although not ideal) if there’s nothing for developers to download and play with. But, to have nothing at *all* to show a year after announcing would be a little weak.
Having said that, if it’s not at a stage where they can do an impressive demo, then so be it. They’ll just have to hold their hands up and say it’s taking longer to build the JavaFX platform that they’d hoped, but they’re taking their time to get it right.
Posted 24 Apr 2008 at 9:24 pm ¶