Editor's Daily Blog

JavaOne 2007 Day Two

Surprised by JavaFX? Yesterday's general session was more surprising than these events often are. I was talking with someone earlier in the week and suggested that maybe one reason that JavaOne keynotes aren't as surprise-packed as, say, Apple's keynotes, is that Sun's everyday process is so open and forward-looking that they're usually not holding back any secrets. True, this leaves less rabbit-out-of-the-hat surprises for JavaOne keynotes, but on the other hand, it means that developers know what's going on and can make plans around it. Come to think of it, when is Apple's JDK 6 coming out?

But as I said, the JavaFX focus of this year's keynote was an unexpected surprise. There's a sense that a lot of people had heard of F3 -- the O'Reilly editors thought it well-known enough to put it in yesterday's crossword puzzle -- but didn't really know what it did or what value it provided. Perhaps the real novelty was getting this interactive environment onto the small device, which explains the recent acquisition of the SavaJe intellectual property.

A lot of our bloggers are talking about JavaFX, so I'll leave that to them, but I do want to point out the OpenJFX project on java.net, unveiled as part of yesterday's announcements. The alpha source code that Sun is demoing at the JavaOne Conference is available on the project site, and if it interests you, this project will give you an opportunity to get involved with the development and evolution of the JavaFX platform.

I spent most of yesterday in the java.net booth, meeting our members in the very comfy environs of the booth (did I mention we have couches and a power strip) and listening to the mini-talks from a variety of presenters. Keeping up with our promise to start getting some (but not all) of this material out quickly, we've posted one of yesterday's best talks, the BlueJ-themed Teaching Java: from High School Student to Professional Developer, as our first mini-talk podcast for 2007. Those of you subscribed via the feed or with iTunes may already have it. Otherwise, check it out, and enjoy the rest of our mini-talks from the show.

Today, I'm representing the java.net side of the open-source world in the "Meet the Sausage Makers" panel, and hosting my angry little Java Media BoF late at night. But these are only two of dozens of sessions and activities at the show. If you're here, let us know what you're up to, and please stop by the booth when you get a chance (the pavilion's open from 11:30 to 4:30). If you're not at JavaOne, then enjoy our ongoing coverage of the show:

• Moore's law turns scale into evolution
• Cay Horstmann: Java One Day 1
• j1-2k7-mtT09: Teaching Java: from High School Student to Professional Developer
• eWeek: Sun Reveals a Slew of Moves at JavaOne
• Stanley Ho: OpenJDK and Modules
• ONJava Blogs: Java FX
• Timothy M. O'Brien: JavaOne: More FX talk, Strolling the Pavillion, Secret Maven Hatred
• Felipe Gaucho: JavaOne 2007 - That's is big!
• Andreas Schaefer: EJB3 and Glassfish
• ONJava blogs: Does JavaFX Spell The End Of AJAX?
• Ron Hitchens: JavaOne 2007: I Feel So Mature
• InfoWorld: Java to get 'superpackage' for software distribution
• Jim Hurley: Sweet Caroline
• David Van Couvering: JavaOne Tuesday Afternoon General Session - Java Technology
• Timothy M. O'Brien: JavaOne: Simon Phipps on Open Source, the Crowds
• Qusay H. Mahmoud: Mobile is global
• Felipe Gaucho: Java Puzzlers strikes JavaONE
• David Herron: OpenJDK out there, and already available as an ebuild on gentoo
• Timothy M. O'Brien: JavaOne: JSR 311: RESTful Web Services
• Kelly O'Hair: OpenJDK Builds (Solaris & Linux)
• JavaOne 2007 - JavaFX, Desktop, and JSF
• Michael Nascimento Santos: Everyone is a Brazilian

Comments

• I am surprised by JavaFX. My initial reactions:

  
  it lacks the perspective of a visual person
  it doesn't address spiders and indexing of rich media
  it doesn't address bookmarks/distinct url mapping

  
  If issues 2 & 3 have been considered and I am missing crucial documentation, then I apologize for my hasty conclusion. Issue 1, however, is really the most significant. It is a common mistake of programmers who presume to understand the visual process.

  This is why designers like Flash. The "IDE" allows a visual person to draw in a free-form way as well as preview animation and simple interactivity. I understand that the nature of JavaFXScript is the first step in developing an IDE for visual people. I am sure that Sun has plans to develop this IDE...

  So I offer this humble advice: If you want visual people to adopt this, analyze their needs thoroughly and make tools for them. We all know that if a lot of great looking JavaFX stuff is out there then no one will care about programmer's debates around the issue.

  Posted by: posttool on May 09, 2007 at 05:43 PM

• I agree, it's the tools that make Flash so successful, not the underlying language or script. On a feature by feature breakdown, Applets look like the better technology, but people use Flash.

  Posted by: lucasjordan on May 09, 2007 at 06:50 PM

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