Sun to Introduce JavaFX Mobile and JavaFX Script

Posted by Scott Delap on May 08, 2007

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According to industry publications, Sun is slated to enter the RIA scripting space with the announcement of JavaFx Script at Tuesday morning's opening JavaOne keynote. JavaFx Script will target desktop, web, and mobile devices. The language leverages the Java2D and Swing API's and features a declarative programming model. Sun officials have noted that what is being announced is an alpha release with a general release date yet to be set. From News.com:

...JavaFX will be open sourced. "We plan to open-source all of JavaFX as we work through the program," said Green. Plans call for eventually offering a line of developer tools to work with JavaFX with a basic, introductory tool to be offered on Tuesday, [Sun's Rich] Green said...

Early coverage has not indicated if the JavaFX Script initiative will also include a more structured push of the Java runtime by Sun similar to the efforts of Adobe with Apollo and Microsoft with Silverlight.  ZDNet's Ed Burnette has also:

 

Statements from Sun executives so far indicate that it will rely on the user already having installed the Java SE/ME runtime. For mobile devices this won't be a problem because when you buy a phone it will come with Java already installed. But for desktop users this might mean a 50MB download and frequent updates, a strategy that has failed in the past. Sun claims a "high-volume distribution of Java", but on the desktop the versions that people have installed are all over the place. By contrast, Flash installs are "frictionless" with no user questions, no scary security warnings, and usually not even a need to restart the browser (let alone the whole computer). Hopefully the Java deployment story on the desktop will be addressed by future developments and by deals such as the one Canonical and Sun worked out earlier to get Java installed with Ubuntu Linux.

News.com is also reporting that Sun also intends to announce the JavaFX Mobile product as well:

...To address compatibility problems with mobile phones, Green is scheduled to detail JavaFX Mobile, a package aimed at mobile-handset makers designed to make Java applications more portable across mobile phones...

JavaFX Mobile is built on technology acquired earlier this year with their purchase of SavaJe.

InfoWorld has indicated that JavaFx Script is a rebranding of the internal Sun F3 project. F3 creator Chris Oliver started writing publicly about the language last fall. An early entry showed the declarative structure of the language in use creating a frame object:

Frame {
    visible: true
    content: Canvas {
        content: Mouse1d {
            width: 200
            height: 200
        }
    }
}

In the months that have followed Oliver has detailed using F3 to easily recreate popular UI's previously developed in Flash, OpenLaszlo, and Ajax.

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   deployment

   by Dan Tines

   Early coverage has not indicated if the JavaFX Script initiative will also include a more structured push of the Java runtime by Sun similar to the efforts of Adobe with Apollo and Microsoft with Silverlight.

   
   
   That's the real key, and where Sun has consistently bungled. Adobe got it right and I'm sure Microsoft took note.
   
   F3 looks somewhat interesting. I agree with the creator of F3 on a general disdain of XML, but I'm wondering how that'll affect tooling that you see in Expression Blend and Adobe's offerings. It does look like the language has decent XML support builtin though.

   Reply

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   JavaFX Mobile = Linux, too

   by David Beers

   From Sun: "JavaFX Mobile, a complete mobile operating and application environment built around Java and Linux open source technologies."
   
   During the keynote JavaFX Core Team member Nandini Ramani mentioned multitasking as a feature of the mobile platform, which presumably requires a preemptive multitasking kernel underneath. They showed it running on the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet (ARM Linux) and the SavaJe Jasper phone. That raises the question whether this would be supported on common RTOS-based feature phones or requires Linux or a Linux-like kernel usually found in a smartphone-class handset.

   Reply

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   Re: JavaFX Mobile = Linux, too

   by David Beers

   On the other hand, they had Marco Boerries from Yahoo up there showing off YahooGo! in connection with JavaFX Mobile. YahooGo! runs on pretty much any phone with a Java ME MIDP runtime, which is about 80% of the phones sold last year. So the whole Linux connection is confused right now. Perhaps JFX Mobile will be a tiered platform with additional features that are accessible when the underlying system supports them.

   Reply

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