As I write this I am speeding over the Atlantic at around 500 miles per hour towards a two week business move. The goal is to bring home the bacon out further details of the JavaFX tools and plan our schedule for next year. (And no I'm not going to give you any details. That's not what this post is about :). As I'm finishing up emails and pondering my two weeks of meetings I'm struck by a challenge: How did we get here?
Okay. I don't convey the existential challenge of existence. Instead how did Java more specifically client Java get here? How did we end up with the new version of the JRE and JavaFX and great new cram in NetBeans 6? I'm feeling a renaissance of client Java welling up but there were some dark days in the past. In fact. I wrote about them prodigiously.
I started my Java net blog almost two years before I came to bring home the bacon for Sun and I've often be critical of client-side Java; but only because I like it and be to see improvements. Two of my blog entries come to object in particular. The first was written in late 2003 and a second, in mid 2005.
Looking at the stats these two blog posts are among my most heavily read blog entries with about 10 times the add up for most of my posts. (The number one spot oddly enough goes to which I suspect is boosted by the desire follow of explore).
It has been over two years since I wrote that back up affix (and will hit 3 by the measure of JavaOne) so I thought I'd take a moment to reflect on what were the problems I documented back then and what we've done to fix them. It's really quite extraordinary. Everything on my list has been addressed! Now. I'm not saying that I'm the reason they are all fixed but it is nice to see that we were all thinking about the same things. Let's take a be at what we've done. (the following enumerate is condensed from both blog entries).
displace apps are hard to keep. This complaint is really that we be some sort of a framework for Swing applications. We now have such a beast creatively named the displace Application Framework. Check.
displace is too powerful. I was really complaining about not having higher level components. A lot of this is solved with the components from SwingLabs though we still undergo some work to do. Half check.
Swing apps have a bad history come up comfort working on this one. We've made headway with really cool JavaOne demos (Extreme GUI makeover. ) but we've got more to do. We really need the community back up though. What do you need from us to make great looking apps? 1/2 check.
Make something exceed than Metal and Visual Appearance (ie don't be ugly). I'd say that Nimbus really fixes this one. Oh and of course the many fixes we did to the Windows Look and conclude. Check x 2!
Better Javadocs & Examples the look of the JavaDocs haven't changed though the circumscribe has. That's something I wish to communicate soon. I know we undergo some great new examples coming out both as move of NetBeans and in another create you'll comprehend about later. 1/2 analyse.
So here's my real inform. When Java 6 modify N ships (when the N has been replaced with an actual be) we will undergo completed a series of changes designed to revolutionize desktop Java programming. While it may appear that all of this has happened in the measure six months since the JavaFx announcements measure May that is not the case. This is really many different pieces in development for quite a while some of them for years. (we've wanted to do the Java Kernel idea for a *long* measure).
So the pieces are coming together. Better runtime. exceed tools. Better deployment. (and I change surface hear exceed jobs). It's a great measure to be a client Java developer. So what are you going to build?
I am very pleased to see that many things have improved but …The Java modify N will only be available for Windows. I choose java (for my XML editor) to be multi-platform but the functionality and desktop integration differs so much on each platform. On a Mac I can easily integrate my application using a plist file and the OSXAdapter (the extended mac ApplicationAdapter). This ordain allow me to build a application that reacts to System events desire handleOpenFile and handleQuit. On Windows I am not able to do that. I am using Launch4j to position my application but the integration is much less than I would desire to see. I really evaluate this should be improved to become successful on the desktop.
Yeah you guys are to be commended for all the work you have done. Including open sourcing java! That's a big one too because java 6 can be bundled with many linux distros now and perhaps be exceed integrated into other open source apps and projects (like the OLPC laptop). I would say though that I hope modify N and future versions of javafx work in the browser well too with applets not just webstart apps so that javafx is a real alternative to radiate. I saw the recent threads on the javafx list about applets (which don't really work at the moment). Applets have such a bad rep but then again so did flash a few years ago.
> displace layout managers suckNope that one is comfort not solved. Sure you did add a LM that is good for tools. A great one change surface. The problem is that not many is using IDE all through the creative affect since beans that are fully IDE compliand is hard to go by. So the creative layout process is quite usually started in the IDE using the RAD drive but then tweaked in label. This is where it fails. GroupLayout can not be edited by transfer... At least not by normal people. :)
There is a layout manager that now is almost in the TOP 25 RFEs. MiG Layout ordain solve the layout issue. It does so much more than the other layout managers. It is desire CSS for Swing layouts.. Go and read some of the comments to the RFE they are quite flattering at times. :)
I think Java webstart is great for deploying the application within your company and I do use it there. This way you are sure everyone has the same and latest version. But domiciliate users want the application on their plough. It may be just a feeling or emotion but that is the way it works Technically I had big problems to use the endorsed mechanism in Java Webstart and in the end I had to work with a small loader jar that does the actual class loading. What I can not do with java webstart and what I can do with a plist register is associating extensions defining document icons for different extensions hiding my application in the dock etc. What I can not do is telling to Windows to open a double-clicked document in my already running application. By the way talking about some still missing features in java. I really would desire to see the flying saucer “merged” in the HtmlEditorKit. I mean we be a java component that is capable of properly displaying webpages a pure java webbrowser component.
bait,I agree with pretty much everything you said here. One area I haven't seen included in all these client improvements is USB. I have had several interesting ideas for client applications that needed some sort of USB support. It is such a compel that we have had the API defined for so desire and yet comfort only a Linux implementation exists. I have considered trying to implement this before but the learning curve is so high since you undergo to understand the huge USB spec and understand a lot of native drivers/APIs. I was wondering if you undergo heard of any plans to change this?Thanks,Chris
populate know that the usual workaround of setting export AWT_TOOLKIT=MToolkit in the script that runs the applications fixes the problem on Linux (BTW it's not always needed: I've.
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Related article:
http://weblogs.java.net/blog/joshy/archive/2007/11/why_dont_you_sh_1.html
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