JavaFX Pre-Launch Technical Call
with Joshua Marinacci and Reggie Hutcherson (Sun Technology Outreach.
Pre-Launch Briefing -- Tuesday Dec 2nd at 0800am Pacific; 11am US East; 5pm Europe
>>>> SLIDES HERE (3.5MB download) <<<<<
>>>>MP3 Audio HERE (17.4MB download -- 38 min running time )
AGENDA
- Java FX 1.0 Overview – Josh Marinacci and Reggie Hutcherson (Director Sun Technology Outreach)
- 15-20 minutes of presentation/discussion..
- There were 45 attendees on the call.
- Q & A
- Q: Peter Pilgrim (LondonJavaWUG-00:10:27): "...the Java script for the applets the DTFX.js can you customize that yourself in a corporate situation?
- A: JoshM: You can download that and modify it that...and I think you can also sub-class it..underneath it actually using a deploy.js which is on java.sun.com....[more about Josh's response see mp3 file]
- Q: Alex Kotchnev (NetBeans Dream Team-00:28:05): "In the Road Map you mentioned that Solaris and Linux will be supported, Can you give any guidance as to the timeline this will happen 6 months...2 Years?
- A: JoshM: " I'm not going to be able to talk about the specifics as to when, but they are in our build systems. We're doing continous builds on them and we would have liked to have release support sooner for those platforms, but there were things that were just not working.... such as video and shaped windows...and we didn't want to release those version without parity with what we've seen [on Windows and the Mac]...so I would say sooner rather than later..."
- Q: Willis Morse (00:29:28): "...We're doing more desktop style development and I am wondering what the deployment model is going to be for JavaFX? What we try to do is to build stand-alone double-clickable jars....is there something we can embed inside there? Is JavaFX going to have to be installed inside the client's JRE? How does that work?
- A: JoshM: "..the JavaFX runtime is JNLP extensions...so you will need to use web-start...even applets are basically using web-start underneath...loading the jnlp extension to do the work and that way it is cached in the users web-start cache so that all FX applications....[more on the mp3]...share that cache copy..runtime..now if you want a standalone installer I believe that Java WS executable has a silent mode... where you can include your application like on a CD and basically pre-inistall into the jnlp cache and it as if the user has gone to the website and installed it directly... and after that point they will receive all our jnlp updates...and as part of that process it will download the JavaFX runtime the first time they run the application...." [more discussion between Willis and Josh see MP3 file above] Josh: "...you're not the first person that has asked about wanting more controll over the re-distribution...send me an email with your test case and we'll look into it..."
- Q: Frank Greco (NYJAVASIG-00:32:15): "Do you have any comments about Sun's strategy to get designers to actually use this thing? [JavaFX and the Designer suite]"
- A: JoshM: "So, the first thing we did was go to the AdobeMax conference and talk to the designers; this conference was held a couple of weeks ago and from the initial reports the Sun booth was very busy with lots of people interested in and excited about JavaFX. For (2) reasons:
- #1 Designers get use Photoshop and Illustrator, so it becomes something they can use right away.
- #2 JavaFX lets designers do things that they cannot do in Flash or other technologies, like: dragging the applets out of the web browser; like putting video on the side of a 3D cube; and accessing existing Java code...there's an example I didn't show in the presentation...there's a library called J-input which is an open-source library from the Java gaming community for talking with USB video game controllers (ie joysticks etc)...I can use a real joy-stick in my web-based applications...and that's something you can't do today.
So yes, designers are excited about JavaFX, somethings will require them to work with a developer...designer and developer will be working in tandem...."
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:
Joshua Marinacci first tried Java in 1995 at the request of his
favorite TA and never looked back. He has spent the last ten years
writing Java user interfaces for wireless, web, and desktop platforms.
After tiring of web programming at a certain home improvement retail
center, a wireless carrier, and a document management company he joined
the Swing team at Sun to finally get back to into high quality user
interfaces. Joshua recently co-authored O'Reilly's Swing Hacks with Chris Adamson. Joshua holds a BS in Computer Science from Georgia Tech and recently moved to San Jose, California.
Community Comments/Discussion points AFTER this call:
- I am not happy with
the "TBD" answer for Linux and Solaris support. At least define what I
can and can't do on Linux and Solaris. Nothing at all with Java FX? or
just not the media codecs? Will the SDK be available for Linux and
Solaris? Will I be able to see JavaFX apps in my web browser? Drag/drop
to desktop? etc. I don't expect the Photoshop and Illustrator plugins
to ever be available on Linux or Solaris. -- Ryan deLaplante (NetBeans Dream Team) 11/26
- [ missed the call this morning..reviewing the slides] ...So, do you mean that you can embed the JavaFX runtime libraries in your application and ship it? Is this because of technical limitationswhich have been added or licensing? Either way, it will be a real shame if it can't be used in NB RCP based applications to make a rounded solution...stinks actually. Too, I think that will be the case for other Swing developers who may have been wanting better media support. Essentially, unless I'm a customer, etc, that will probably mean I won't be using JavaFX for much. I use JNLP for a lot of things, but I use NB RCP and Swing for more. -- Wade Chandler (NetBeans Dream Team) 12/1
- The only point I've got - and it's an objection - it's about the distribution of the runtime. At the moment, you can embed the JavaFX
stuff only by using JNLP and this doesn't sound good for all the people,
like me, that still like the good, old way of distributing standalone
applications (I've heard that one of the phone call attendees put the
same question). JNLP is good, but as one more choice to do things; in
some environments, such as Mac OS X, I think that most users will still
prefer to see a .dmg, mount it and drag the icon into Applications.
Furthermore, the only other advantage of JNLP is the auto-update
features, but we platformers already have our infrastructure. So, I really hope that this will be changed - I can't figure out what's
the reason why Sun has chosen in this way. Also, I expect a lot of
criticism from the public, concerning the opening of JavaFX (another
point that needs to be discussed): "if I can't freely download the
runtime, this means that JavaFX isn't free, right? What about OpenJFX?
If it provides the same features, how could it be freely downloadable? "
... and you get the rest of the questions, up to the usual " Sun is
tweaking open source" and bla bla bla. -- Fabrizio Giudici (NetBeans Dream Team) 12/1
PS And, in my specific context, I can't distribute blueMarine with JNLP
because of a blocking but of the IDE.
-
"...there are desktop integration issues
with Webstart which may (I hope not) cause headaches with
the draggable applet feature. One of the issues that the
big financial firms had with Webstart-ed apps was with
desktop security. Most end-users (and many developers) do
not have local admin rights on their PC; they cannot install
short-cuts on their desktop. If they drag an app onto their
desktop, it will not be there the next time they restart their session. Not sure if other non-financial firms have this issue
but it sounds likely. Just fyi...." -- Frank Greco (Java Champion) 12/1
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