JavaFX represents a significant shift in the way Sun engages with the Java product market. Rather than focusing solely on the underlying technology, Sun is looking to provide a complete solution for an individual market. With the 1.0 release imminent InfoQ takes a look at the platform and talks to Sun Staff Engineer Joshua Marinacci about the upcoming release.
In this presentation from QCon San Francisco 2007, Chet Haase discusses Java SE 6, Update N/Consumer JRE, the goals and feature set for Java FX (e.g. media support, scene graph, HTML and mobile devices), and the current set of possible features for JDK 7 such as Java FX features, Swing-related JSRs (295 and 296), transparent/shaped windows, tiered compilation, closures and invoke-dynamic bytecode.
Oracle's decision to cease work on JavaFX Script, announced at JavaOne, was a disappointment to some in the community. Using the open source JavaFX Script compiler as a starting point, Project Visage is looking to continue to develop the DSL as an open-source project.
Last month Sun has announced the release of the JavaFX 1.3 version delivering performance and functional improvements, including: new UI controls, CSS skinning, and programmatic layout, extended production suite, TV application support, mobile emulator on the Mac platform and UI composer plugin for NetBeans IDE 6.9 Beta .
Sun has released an early preview of one of the two RAD tools it is building for JavaFX through the NetBeans update centre. JavaFX is also seeing some more high profile early adopters including the 2010 Winter Olympics website.
As Oracle CEO Larry Ellison publicly backs JavaFX, Sun launches JavaFX 1.2 with a new charting API, beta support for Linux and Solaris, and a number of significant language changes to JavaFX Script. Sun has also given a public demonstration of its JavaFX authoring tool and JavaFX TV at JavaOne, and the Eclipse plug-in is receiving some attention.
Sun Microsystems has launched JavaFX mobile today just in time for the mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain next week.
Stephen Chin is the lead developer of two open source JavaFX projects: WidgetFX, a desktop widget platform, and JFXtras, a set of add-ons and utilities for developers working with JavaFX Script. He is also co-authoring the forthcoming Pro JavaFX book with Jim Weaver and Weiqi Gao. In this interview he tells us more about these projects and his thoughts on JavaFX.
Chet Haase of Adobe Systems, who previously worked at Sun on the JavaFX team, shared his comparisons of JavaFX and Adobe Flex on the Yahoo FlexCoder group.
