John O'Conner's Blog

JavaFX -- Simplifying UI for Content Developers

What is JavaFX? It's a set of Java technologies that will make it easier to develop rich multimedia content on the Java platform. At it's core, it's a new scripting language that runs on desktops and mobile devices.

From the JavaOne general session today, we learn this about JavaFX:

• it's a consumer focused Java technology;
  
• it has been designed for high impact consumer markets;
  
• it's based on Java SE
  

James Gosling, while describing the new language, answered the question "Why another scripting language?" The answer: scripting languages usually have a specific strength or focus. On the Java platform prior to this announcement, no scripting language focused on making high-impact UIs. The JavaFX Script language focuses on building interactive, multimedia content.

You can find more about this new technology here:

• Project OpenJFX
  
• JavaFX Technology FAQs, documents
  

Comments

• So I had a look at JavaFX. In order to 'learn' the language the only resource is the download... and the code in the download has about a 1:100 ratio of comments to code. Do I need to go into detail about how bad this is?

  In other news, my reaction to JavaFX was very much like my reaction to a recent article introducing Scala to Java programmers.

  Where it is the same, I think "why bother". Where it is different I was struck by there not seeming to be any significant advantage.

  In the case of JavaFX, the code certainly didn't look any easier to write. Maybe it is easier for tools to write? Maybe tools are the reason this is so great?

  Posted by: rickcarson on May 08, 2007 at 06:04 PM

• Dont know why the above poster doesnt like it. I think this JavaFX scripting language is very very promising. My first look at any JavaFX code was here: https://openjfx.dev.java.net/Getting_Started_With_JavaFX.html and to me it looks nice a nice simple way of describing a heirarchy of JavaBeans and properties.

  Whats also exciting is I think its a great answer to Microsoft's XAML. Over at MS they love their XAML for declaritive UIs. But once those documents start growing, XML gets really hard to read, and not fun to write. Then to do anything procedural, you have to either point to C# elsewhere or embed C# in ugly CDATA XML sections. But this JavaFX language has first class functions. I love the inline operations to handle events. Not to mention it supports packages, and defining classes for component based development, really simple binding and built in syntax for animation!

  I think we're on to something here. WAY better than XAML. And shows that XML is not the answer to everything!

  Posted by: benloud on May 08, 2007 at 10:31 PM

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