JavaFX At Crossroads

At JavaOne last week, Oracle announced that (as I understand it):

1. JavaFX will go forward
2. JavaFX 2.0 will be released in 2011 Q3
3. The work on JavaFXScript language will be discontinued, at least will not be continued at Oracle
4. JavaFX will be accessible via regular Java APIs
5. Work on JavaFX for cell phones will be discontinued, too.
6. JavaFX 1.3.1 incl. JavaFXScript will be still available.

See the following links for the related announcements:

• JavaFX Script is dead, long live JavaFX
• JavaFX 2010-2011 Roadmap
• JavaFX 2.0
• A Heartfelt Ramble on Swing & JavaFX

On the other hand, there is an outside support for continuing work on JavaFXScript by the developer community. The sequel to JavaFXScript will be called Visage. See:

• Announcing Visage – The DSL for Writing UIs
• http://code.google.com/p/visage/

What does it mean for our 465 course:

• While the switch to JavaFX may look premature, and in retrospect caused a substantial delay, it was largely beneficial after all.
• We will shorten the introduction to JavaFXScript language to cover the essentials without focusing on the details.
• We will use Java more extensively than I originally intended, I have already constructed an example that demonstrates how to use Java classes from within a JavaFX app and how then Java can call upon JavaFX classes to do what JavaFX does best, i.e. GUI and multimedia. My example takes advantage of object-oriented facilities in both Java and JavaFX, in particular Java interfaces.
• Some JavaFXScript coverage will be necessary, however, as JavaFXScript is modeled after other scripting languages, the exposure to JavaFXScript will be beneficial to you, the students.
• JavaFX 2.0 will maintain the main advantages of the current JavaFX 1.3.1and expose it via pure Java API.  These are (in the order I see it):
  1. consistent APIs to all
  2. binding
  3. closures (functional programming)
• There are other Java-related languages that offer similar facilities as JavaFXScript, the most similar among them seems to be Scala. See the slides presentation "JavaFXYour WayBuilding JavaFXApplications with Alternative Languages" about using JavaFX in Scala and other languages. (Also available at Stephen Chin's blog)
• If the Visage language becomes successful you'll be able to leverage your exposure to JavaFXScript.

Finally, let me cite from a blog by Richard Blair, the main guy behind JavaFX 2.0:

• JavaFX is core to the strategy for rich client application development at Oracle. Simply put, JavaFX is the evolution of the Java rich client designed to address the needs of today’s and tomorrow’s customers. This is all about making Java dominant on the client.