JavaFX Back in Contest
Or so it might seem. A month after JavaFX has been written off, having been called too programmer-centric and user-unfriendly, and our in-house trend check presenting its declining presence in the RIA scene, Sun made an announcement that makes a difference.
Sun Microsystems finally released the beta of a new SDK for JavaFX that contains three components: the SDK itself; a plug-in for the NetBeans IDE to help Java programmers build their JavaFX apps; and Project Nile, a bi-directional integration layer with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. (Nile takes care of collaboration between artists and programmers.)
The SDK is apparently still incomplete in realizing the “write once/run anywhere” promise and Sun hopes to complete it by the end of the year. However, features like the On2 video codecs for live video streams won’t be available until next year. Sun is already considered notoriously slow in developing products, this beta coming over a year after its announcement.
Anyway, the current SDK has two sets of APIs, one each for building desktop apps and apps that run across platforms. It gives developers a chance to study the tutorials and documentation, and begin creating apps particularly for multiple platforms.
Does this mean that JavaFX is back in contention, or is the new development too late or too insignificant? What do you think?
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