I remember how excited I was in 1995 when stumbling upon an alpha release of Java. I was a Systems Architect for a large technology firm at the time, and had recently finished an evaluation of several cross-platform (Windows, Motif, Mac) application development tools. The result of the evaluation was disappointing in that there seemed to be no good choice. Then came Java...
Applets, for me, represented a way that our company could deliver applications that were as rich in UI features as the C++/GUI toolkit applications that we had been developing for each of these platforms individually. I began creating proof of concept applets on the Netscape Navigator browser, and looked forward to a happy future where Java applets would run on all browsers. After all, it made sense (to me anyway) that the Java Runtime Environment should be included on all browsers. Then came the browser wars...
To say that I (and much of the development community) was disappointed with results of the browser wars would be an understatement:
- Java applets, even with the Java Plug-in, never became a serious option for rich, cross-platform, internet applications.
- Technologies (e.g. HTTP and HTML) that were originally meant to share information, were suddenly being employed to support N-tier applications. The fact that there are different flavors of HTML didn't help accomplish this feat.
- JavaScript, with its different flavors, became an enabler (in the co-dependent sense perhaps) of this trend.
- Many web-based applications today consist of various technologies, that when combined, are very difficult to maintain (again, an understatement).
I remember how excited I was in 2007 when stumbling upon an alpha release of JavaFX Script...
Can We Get this RIA Thing Right This Time?
I personally am not hung up on the Flex vs. JavaFX vs. whatever debate. They all have their strengths, and there is room for more than one RIA technology. I've been a Java developer and author since 1995, so I have a preference for being able to leverage the power of the Java and Java Swing libraries from the simple declarative scripting of JavaFX Script. In fact, as you may have read between the lines of my book and blog, I'm quite enamored with JavaFX Script for developing rich internet applications, not to mention how cool it will be on mobile devices.
As I said in the Putting My CTO Hat On post, "What I'm really hoping for in the 2008-early 2009 timeframe is that the deployment for JavaFX applications (including the JRE) will be so fast and easy that we'll be writing rich-client JavaFX applications in most cases (rather than defaulting to browser-based applications)." I'm betting that Compiled JavaFX Script and the technology formerly known as Consumer JRE will help get us there.
Some of the Voices I've Been Hearing
"Basically, I want what Java Applets promised 10 years ago, but in a form that actually works. How does JavaFX and Java Web Start fit in with this?" -Paul Browne. Visit Paul's blog.
"Java applets, or something like it, is having a comeback. And this time, it just might work. I'm not predicting that Sun will win. As a matter of fact, I wish every product in this space wins. However, what I can predict is that classical web app development will fade away as a viable IT option within 3 years. Surely Google and Yahoo and Amazon.com will still be putting out web apps, but for the most part, ordinary people won't be writing HTML or even thinking HTML anymore. -Weiqi Gao. See "Java's Game Changing Move: The First Step" in Weiqi's blog.
"There's so much more that can be done, and I think this represents a potential flowering of the capabilities of the Internet. Notice I didn't say "the capabilities of the Web" but of the Internet, because it seems to me that the Internet has been held back by the web browser." -David Herring. See "Freeing the Internet from the Web jail" in David's blog.
"Folks, the browser platform is passé. The race for the next round of cross-platform (note: not cross-browser) internet applications (note: not web applications) has already started. And my prediction is that JavaFX Script will win." -Weiqi Gao. See "JavaScript To Fragment, The End Of The Reign Of The Browsers" in Weiqi's blog.
In the interest of full disclosure, Weiqi Gao is the technical reviewer of my JavaFX Script book (and he did an awesome job in reviewing it and providing technical input by the way).
Fair Warning on the Next JavaFX Puzzler
The next JavaFX Script Puzzler is planned to be posted at 18:00 GMT (1:00 pm EST) on Wednesday, November 14. Study up! :-D
Regards,
Jim Weaver
JavaFX Script: Dynamic Java Scripting for Rich Internet/Client-side Applications
eBook (PDF) download available at the book's Apress site
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