On 2/9/10 00:45 , Jess Holle wrote:
One of the reasons JavaFX could be compelling is as a rich and rapid
application toolkit that actually covers mobile and SE at once.
If you don't care about things being quite so rich and rapid, then
just go with DHTML. If you don't care about mobile, then one could
arguably just use Swing, though one could argue it's not as rapid or
rich as JavaFX.
In any case, JavaFX's story is watered down whenever one has to add
Swing to fill in the gaps. This is actually true whenever one has to
fill in JavaFX's gaps with Java -- it works fine if one only cares
about Java SE environments. Java ME has only a subset of Java and
that subset is also back in pre-Java-5 days and thus even the subset
is a technology backwater that erodes the entire notion of WORA (as
you can't write code that uses Java 5+ features or libraries that use
such features and then have it work on Java ME).
Perhaps the best solution here is for Java ME to simply die at this
point -- as it is quite clear that Sun has no will to update it, no
one else in the mobile community has the will/power to make Sun do so,
mobile devices are ever more powerful, and Java 7's modularity may
help Java SE squish into places it hasn't been before.
[ME has been a cash cow for Sun -- one which it seems they've been
milking without really investing in at least in terms of updating the
base JVM technology. It also seems that Sun's been pretty
uninterested in making SE actually replace ME in the near term -- lest
they endanger that revenue. It's thus unsurprising that Google jumped
to Harmony and essentially created their own Java mobile edition given
the alternative of paying Sun for antiquated technology which Sun is
clearly not keeping up to date.]
We are talking of different things here...
First, filling the gaps with Swing would make sense for any application
whose expected life is a few years (let's say 3/5 which in my experience
is typical). Using a JTable would mean to make it out for the first
year, and then you'll probably be able to replace it with a native
JavaFX component. It's also likely that you have to mix Java and JavaFX
if you're evolving any existing application.
For the mobile, tell me which existing technology allows real WORA
encompassing both the desktop and the mobile(s). Yes, the fact that JME
is still Java 1.3 is a shame, of course, and the fact that Android is
nearly Java 5 is a plus. BTW, the complicated scenario you described is
real, but doesn't justify the fact that Google actually departed from
true compatibility with Java 5, even though they base on it. Which means
that the technical explanation is only a part of the reality, and Google
indeed wanted to cut their own, different than Java solution. That's a
pity and a bad decision for the community of developers, since it's
increasing fragmentation.
Of course, I do hope that JME will be away soon, and by this I mean a
fast evolution towards a realisting subset of Java 5. If I'm not wrong,
it's what Oracle described in their plans.
--
Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect, Project Manager
Tidalwave s.a.s. - "We make Java work. Everywhere."
java.net/blog/fabriziogiudici - www.tidalwave.it/people
[email protected]
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java
Posse" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected].
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
[email protected].
For more options, visit this group at
http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
