[Steering Committee] Fw: JavaFX: How much interest is there?

[Brian Sheldon]

I thought Jason might be interested in the first part of this - javaFX...

Do we have a speaker and sponsor for September?  Seems like Jason was going to do the presentation but may not be able to make it??? do we need a backup?

brian

----- Forwarded Message ----
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Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 11:44:54 PM
Subject: JavaFX: How much interest is there?


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Mike Urban is the Managing Editor of the DZone communities. He also develops applications using Java, Python, and C that assist in research involving African lions in Tanzania, East Africa. 
JavaFX: How much interest is there?
JavaFX has gotten quite a bit of hype. Not only is it Java's answer to Silverlight, but it is also supposed to be a competitor to Apollo. Part of the goal of JavaFX is an attempt bring Java applets back from the dead. JavaFX, coupled with the consumer JRE and the Java kernel, should allow small, and very fast Java downloads and installs, along with very fast application startup times.
But JavaFX doesn't stop at running just inside the browser. It can also be used to write desktop applications, and even Java ME applications in the future. The JavaFX API is quite powerful, but at the same time, significantly less complicated than the Swing API. JavaFX is more cross platform than Silverlight, and more powerful than, as well as much more cross-platform than Apollo. but how much interest is there really? 
Of course, standard disclaimers about "This is not a scientific poll, etc.. ,etc..." apply, but a recent poll on java.net sheds some light on the subject. According to the poll, 15.6% of respondents said they were "very interested" in JavaFX. Unfortunately,, however, 27.6% said they were only “somewhat interested”, 25.7% said they were "not very interested", and 20.4% said they were "not at all interested". If you are doing the math, you found there is 10.4% left. Those 10.4% had never even heard of JavaFX, by responding with "JavaFWhat"? And since that poll likely only indicates the interest that Java developers themselves have in JavaFX, it doesn't even account for the rest of the developer population, which has probably never even heard of JavaFX.
Despite the fact that JavaFX is receiving quite a bit of press in Java land, with how-to articles and such appearing on the Java desktop community site, actual developer interest, according to the poll (again, with standard disclaimers applied), seems fairly low. This raises a few interesting questions in my mind:
Why is interest in JavaFX--even among Java developers, so low? Is it because most have given up on Java on the desktop and in the browser? Is it because most of them have already decided to adopt Flex? 
Is there anything Sun can do to help increase interest in JavaFX within the Java development community? 
Is there anything we as a Java development community can do to increase interest in JavaFX among non-Java developers... Like say, Flash developers for example? Or those considering using Apollo? 
I look forward to hearing what others in the Java community think on these questions. I, for one, think that JavaFX has a lot of potential--far more potential than the competing technologies. JavaFX can be used in the browser, on the desktop, and even for programming the next generation of Java ME phone applications. Why does the interest level, at least according to this poll, seem quite low? Join us at Javalobby and share your thoughts.
Looking forward to your comments.
Kind Regards,
Mike Urban
mike at dzone.com
 


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Matthew Schmidt is the man behind the scenes at Javalobby. If you have questions or concerns, feel free to email him at matt at javalobby.org.
Java Kernel to be in JDK 6u4?
In a quiet announcement, some of the engineers working on the "Java Kernel" (previously Java Browser Edition) announced that it is ready and will be included in JDK 6 update 4.  What this means is that theoretically you'll be able to pull down a simple 2 megabyte JRE when you just have a HelloWorld applet.  If you read the previously linked blog entry about the Java Browser Edition, you'll see that Ethan was able to break the JRE down from 15.5Mb to 3.5Mb for a java.awt.Frame JRE.  In the initial discussions, these JREs didn't actually do anything if you were missing functionality, but I assume that in Java 7 (and perhaps in JDK 6u4) these JREs will actually prompt you to go get more data.   
This is incredibly exciting for all the people clamoring about how big the JRE is and why we need to have all the extras like JDBC and other bits when we just want to show a simple applet.  I suspect that Sun's interest in JavaFX script and seeing it actually be useful in the browser and as a quick download are what drove this particular feature to be available in an already shipping JDK.  Kudos to Sun for getting this done early, it'll be interesting to see how people make use of it.   Post your thoughts about the Java Kernel at Javalobby.  
Generate your models with iBatis and Abator
This week, we have some excellent new content for Javalobby members to consume.  In a new article, Introduction to iBatis, Adam Smith talks about how to use the tool Abator to generate your iBatis models and configuration.  As a user of a relatively large iBatis system, I'm interested to see how this tool would have generated our models from our database schema.  Be sure to check out this new article if you're considering a database layer for your application.  It also integrates great with Spring for those of you using it.  
Why do people insist on doing EVERYTHING in Java?
Yesterday morning Greg Pierce posted an interesting question to Javalobby.  He says:
While doing the investigation there were a number of people who questioned why I was even planning to bring in new tech. These people have had a number of "not so scientific" reasons for not adopting these and other technologies such as…
This is something that we've touched on in the past and I think it’s a common, yet critical problem.  People immediately clam up when they have to reach outside their comfort zone, especially when they feel they have job security at stake.  In some of the cases that Greg mentions (Groovy and Guice for example), the new technologies are incredible close to Java.  
While some of the cases that Greg's arguers mention are valid, I think that we shouldn't be so afraid to try and even embrace new technologies.  There are often things in these other technologies that we can learn from.  For example, using Guice instead of Spring for a project, may open up your eyes to a better way to manage your project.  So, the moral of the story is this: don't bury your head in the sand when it comes to new projects, sometimes they might just hold something valuable.
Congratulations to Jive!
Yesterday afternoon I was pleasantly surprised to see an article News.com about Jive taking in a nice solid round of venture capital to help fund their push with Clearspace.  Congratulations to those guys, I know they've been working hard and have been self-funded and profitable for a very long time.  I know that they'll be doing great things with the money, and I expect that we'll be seeing some pretty nice enhancements to Clearspace and their other products because of it.  For those of you not in the know, Clearspace is documents, wikis, blogs, and forums all rolled up into one nice package.  Check it out if you haven't already.
Until Next Time,
Matthew Schmidt
matt at javalobby.org
Yahoo IM: mattschmidtjl
 


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