Joshua Marinacci's Blog

The Winds of Change

As we head into the holiday season I'm feel pretty upbeat about the state of client Java. There are many challenges ahead, but things are better for client developers than they have been in close to a decade. Before I dive into the future let me do a quick recap.

NetBeans 6 final just went out the door, including many GUI builder improvements like the new menu designer, super easy multiple language support, and new hooks for the Beans Binding and and Swing App Frameworks. After being in development for close to 2 years it's quite a relief to have the release finally done. This is probably the most important release we've ever shipped. I'm very proud of it.

NetBeans 6 also includes the latest release of the JavaFX developer plugin. You can turn it on with a quick download from the Plugins dialog (see instructions). We've also launched a brand new version of the OpenJFX website, which is much cleaner and easier to navigate. I've even got some more demos on tap for the next few weeks.

Going into 2008 we've got a lot on our plates. The upcoming release of Java SE 6 Update N promises to deliver tremendous improvements for desktop developers. The JavaFX Compiler project will bring drastic runtime speedups to FX programs. And next week we will release a secret open source project that none of you have been expecting. No more details until then, but I will say that it will not only benefit the JavaFX designer tool, but many of your own projects as well.

The winds of change are blowing so you'd better ask Santa for a warm coat. 2008 is going to be a windy year for Java developers.

- Josh

Comments

• Let take a wild guess: The Scene Graph library, which will replace JFX jazz library? Thanks for the update anyway Josh. I am particularly looking forward for this SG library, as well as the compiler version of JFX. More importantly I am looking forward for the much awaited redesigned Java Plugin with the built in support for JFX applet included right out of the gate, as I am planning to do some big JFX applet work. Any ideas when is this plugin going to be released? Are any of your demos going to be JFX applets by any chance?

  Thanks again for the hard work.

  Posted by: mikeazzi on December 03, 2007 at 11:42 AM

• Actually, no. It's not the scene graph lib. It's something you've all never heard of.

  Posted by: joshy on December 03, 2007 at 11:49 AM

• ho ho ho! Ill have to give #6 a spin. I've been using the 5 series and I have few complaints beyond what appears to be swing locking up occasionally. Now we have a mystery project, what could it be? Is there a reference as to what is going to happen in Update N someplace?

  Posted by: ah_um on December 03, 2007 at 04:32 PM

• something related to google android ? or j2me?

  Posted by: ajainy on December 03, 2007 at 08:23 PM

• The Java Kernel? A generic visual builder platform (similar to the flash studio) ?

  Posted by: bharathch on December 04, 2007 at 12:24 AM

• Or, a new cross-platform media library for Java?

  Posted by: bharathch on December 04, 2007 at 12:31 AM

• Something to do with this: http://weblogs.java.net/blog/chet/archive/2007/05/media_frenzy.html ?

  Posted by: fester on December 04, 2007 at 08:46 AM

• While these are all great guesses, and indeed there is work being done on these (as you all well know), none of these are what I'm talking about. You'll just have to wait until next week.

  Posted by: joshy on December 04, 2007 at 08:50 AM

• Something with WebKit and JavaFX...

  Posted by: wsnyder6 on December 04, 2007 at 10:02 AM

• nope. it doesn't have to do with webkit or javafx, though it will be usable by javafx script.

  Posted by: joshy on December 04, 2007 at 11:04 AM

• Is it related to OS X in any way? ;-)

  Posted by: evickroy on December 04, 2007 at 12:05 PM

• Nope. I didn't single handedly port Java 6 to Mac, though

  this guy did!

  Posted by: joshy on December 04, 2007 at 01:25 PM

• Thanks for the post. Thanks for FlyingSaucer as well, and Swing Hacks :). I've not been this excited about Java since the release of JDK1.0 :). I've written a blog entry about how excited I am about building an RIA platform, apps, and services, in Java6. Can't wait for UpdateN and then Java7 :).

  Posted by: nazmulidris on December 04, 2007 at 10:26 PM

• Ah, Sun will finally, after more than a decade, start to systematically fix the bugs and shortcomings in Swing and AWT?

  No? Ok, so we'll see just another initiative to start something different. Mind you, not better, just different, to get away from the existing train wreck. But like so many Sun Java APIs it will be abandoned a year later. When all the PR has been milked out of the project, when the hype is gone, and when the hard work of getting it finally right, fixing things and polishing it sets in. Then Sun will once again jump ship and announce the next big thing since sliced bread.
  

  Posted by: ewin on December 04, 2007 at 11:12 PM

• Ahh, ewin, always a big ray of sunshine.
  :)

  Posted by: larswestergren on December 05, 2007 at 12:30 AM

• I hope however that "Desktop Java" in 2008 will not just be limited to providing new tools and technologies (even though I adore NetBeans 6.0 and am in awe talking about the consumer JRE and things related to it) but also will see some _substantial_ improvements in terms of allowing for seamless desktop integration of Java/Swing applications. So far, having a Java application feeling like a native one and providing a similar feature set is what we would possibly want, including things like hooking into desktop environments and interacting with existing infrastructure in a way much better than this is likely to happen now. Next thing, I dearly hope that AWT (and, in turns, the default menu attached to the new JDK 6 TrayIcon) finally will have a visually appealing look on non-windows platforms. So far, Java has done outstandingly well in the backend tier, hope the desktop will be substantially next.

  Posted by: kawazu on December 05, 2007 at 01:17 PM

• Java SE 6 Update N is focused squarely on the client. You will see many new features and speedups, all designed to improve the end user experience of client Java. See my post here for more details.

  Posted by: joshy on December 05, 2007 at 02:23 PM

• Is the secret project related to JRE kernel ?
  OR is it "Designer Editor" for JavaFXScript ?

  i guess I am over curious about this secret project, ( half of the hits for your blog from the time you posted about secret project must be mine :) )

  Kishore.

  Posted by: kishoresjava on December 10, 2007 at 08:29 AM

• Nope. It has nothing to do with JavaFX or the Java Kernel. You'll just have to wait! :)

  Posted by: joshy on December 10, 2007 at 08:37 AM

• hep hep it's been a week :)

  Posted by: liquid on December 10, 2007 at 12:29 PM

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