Ethan Nicholas's Blog

JAXX: new version, long-term plans

(For an introduction to JAXX, start here.)

First things first: JAXX 1.0.1 is finally out. This version contains a lot of bugfixes and significant improvements to the quality and size of the generated Java code. Download it here.

Now that the major 1.0 bugs are fixed and a solid baseline has been established, I'm making plans for the future. Where is JAXX headed? What's next? I've posted a first pass at the JAXX roadmap and am seeking feedback. It's still early and subject to change, and there will be a lot more detail added as time goes on -- but I think it's a fairly decent stab at where things are headed.

I'm particularly excited about the addition of animation, based on Chet Haase's Timing Framework. The first animation features are going to be simple and straightforward, based on the current CSS pseudoclasses. Right now you can use a pseudoclass to, say, make a label turn blue when moused over:

<style>
  #hoverLink:mouseover {
    foreground: blue;
  }
</style>

<JLabel id='hoverLink' text='Mouse over to turn me blue'/>

This effect is applied instantly -- the second the mouse enters the label, it turns blue. The initial animation features will allow you to have effects like this be applied gradually over time:

<style>
  #hoverLink:mouseover[duration=500ms] {
    foreground: blue;
  }
</style>

<JLabel id='hoverLink' text='Mouse over to turn me blue'/>

Note the [duration=500ms] on the pseudoclass. There will be other properties for controlling acceleration, deceleration, and perhaps other features of the animation. This a simple change, to be sure, but I don't want to go overboard yet. More dramatic animation features will be added in good time.

What else is going on with JAXX? You'll have to take a look at the JAXX roadmap -- just be sure to let me know what you think!

Comments

• It seems like the duration would be another property of the animation on the component, much like background-color and background-image. Thus it seems like you should do something more like this:

  #hoverLink:mouseover {
  foreground: blue;
  animation-duration: 500ms
  }

  Posted by: joshy on June 12, 2006 at 11:07 PM

• joshy:I considered that, but that basically mixes together two different kinds of properties -- the foreground applies to the link itself, while the animation properties don't. I felt it was semantically cleaner to separate them into two different groups.
  That said, I'm not married to any particular syntax. If people would rather see a different syntax, I'm certainly willing to change it.

  Posted by: enicholas on June 13, 2006 at 08:35 AM

• How about creating a binding for JAXX to generate GWT code so that you can easily create AJAX UI's for the web? It should be farily straight forward, GWT uses a component hierarchy model that's very close to Swing.

  Posted by: ebekker on June 13, 2006 at 08:45 AM

• ebekker: Not a question of if, but when. Currently I'm thinking it's going to be the release after Minuet. If I can recruit some additional developers to contribute to JAXX, it might be possible to squeeze AJAX output in to Minuet.And due to Minuet's rendering-independent tags, the same JAXX file could be compiled as a Swing component, an AWT component, an AJAX component, and maybe even an SWT component...

  Posted by: enicholas on June 13, 2006 at 09:23 AM

• Hmm. I see what you mean. I guess I'm partial to keeping with CSSish style properties. That makes it easier for new developers to pick up.

  Posted by: joshy on June 13, 2006 at 09:35 AM

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