JavaFX - first impressions from a Flash developer (me!)
First impressions of JavaFX, having used it for about an hour. Can't be bothered with proper sentences for this! Here's the bullets:
- The code IDE - NetBeans 6.5 - is great.
- There's no visual editor that I could find - export from PhotoShop, Illustrator. For free versions try Paint.NET and Inkscape.
- The language (JavaFX Script) seems like MXML and ActionScript rolled in to one language. A very different programming model to how I work. You never really write thing = new VisualThing(30, 20), it's all done with literals, so more like thing = VisualThing{param1:30, param2:20}.
- That takes some getting used to, but I imagine if there was a good reason to use JavaFX for a project I'd be fine.
- Certainly much easier to get started with than normal Java applets.
- You can also use straight Java classes.
- The plug-in update experience is still pretty horrible compared to Flash and even Silverlight.
- Lots of the demo's are using Java Web start, which is also horrible.
- Couldn't find anything about easy embedding - what's the Java version of swfobject?
- Run-time performance seems fine and renders graphics nicely.
- This technology has picked up seemingly zero traction amongst Flash community. Maybe will be a slow burner like Silverlight? Certainly Sun haven't thrown loads of money at Flashers like they did with Silverlight. (They probably can't afford to).
- I hope it's not a flop because competition within the plug-in space can only be a good thing, but we'll see.
- Nice range of 2D effects like we got with Flash 8 - drop shadow, blur etc
- No 3D as yet, but it's on the roadmap.
- Properly free and Open Source I think.
- You can also develop Flash / Flex for free with MXMLC compiler, so that's not a reason to use over Flash.
- Mobile version coming soon - don't know which platform supported yet - not iPhone or Android so who cares!
- Now that I've sniffed around it I have no reason to use it, so back to Flash for now! Wish Sun the best of luck, because the technology actually seems ok.
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