On Thursday, JavaFX 1.3 was released. We're featuring posts/articles about the new release in Java Today, and the new java.net poll features JavaFX 1.3 as well.
Pretty much everyone seems to agree that this is a major release. The What's New in JavaFX 1.3 page summarizes the most significant enhancements and changes in the new release as follows:
The JavaFX 1.3 release is a significant update featuring:
New and enhanced support for UI controls, CSS, and programmatic layout
A native JavaFX font family called Amble
Support for the development of TV applications, including a new TV emulator
Enhancements for mobile applications, with the availability of the mobile emulator on the Mac platform
Support and improved editing features in NetBeans IDE 6.9 Beta
New features and enhanced performance in JavaFX Production Suite
Bind performance: 2-3x faster
Applet start-up time: 20% faster (with Java SE 6u18+)
Text Animation: 5-10x faster (frames per second)
Highly complex animations: up to 10x faster (frames per second)
Memory usage: 20-33% reduction (real-world apps, with Java SE 6u18+)
UI Controls: 50% faster, 33%-50% less memory (typical)
Last week's poll, which was suggested by Eduardo Pelegri-Llopart, asked for people's reactions to certain licensing changes recently made by Apple. A total of 275 votes were cast, with the following results:
What's your reaction to the new cross-platform compiler restrictions in the iPhone Developer Agreement?
10% (28 votes)- It's a good strategic move for Apple
13% (35 votes) - I used to like Apple; now I'm reconsidering
46% (127 votes) - This limits developers, and will ultimately damage Apple itself
20% (56 votes) - Who cares?
7% (19 votes) - I don't know
4% (10 votes) - Other
The consensus view among java.net voters was clear (remember that this isn't a scientific poll). I won't weigh in too much myself about this issue, because I consider myself biased (negatively) with regard to Apple. My views on Apple are fairly well represented by cajo's comment, "Remember -- Power to the people?":
Guess I'm getting older, but I remember my Apple ][ came with full schematics, BIOS listings, everything needed to experiment with, and extend the platform. It really got me started in Computer Science and Engineering. I also remember well the Apple 1984 commercial, railing against the "controlled" IBM platform... What happened Steve?
But, of course, the issue does have some complexity. This is illustrated by the amount of conversation the poll elicited (six comments in all). petithug said "Way to go, Steve!":
I generally dislike Apple's products (and don't get me started on Microsoft's), something about the greatest enemy of freedom been a happy slave. But I must say that I support Steve Jobs 100% on this one. Flash, Silverlight and Java applets are the cancer of the World Wild Web. Jobs is probably not doing this for the sake of the Internet but if this could help getting rid of this diseases, then I will see the iPad in a less malevolent eye.
An unusual way of looking at it, perhaps. I mean, technologies as "diseases"? But, technology does incite passion, and I've at times been part of that too, so I understand...
pelegri (Eduardo) responded to petithug's post with "It's about more than Flash":
@Petihug - 3.3.1 is more than about Flash (or Applets, or Silverlight, or ...). IANAL, but it seems to me 3.3.1 precludes using frameworks/tools like Titanium and probably even many games as most gaming platforms are organized as a scripting layer on top of a game engine. I don't know if anti-trust laws apply here: although the iPhone/iPad is not a monopoly of the mobile market in number of units, they have a large portion of the $$ of the Apps market. But even ignoring that, I don't see how this clause can stay as-is. If Apple enforces it for Adobe but not for others, there will be a lawsuit. If they enforce it everywhere, there will be a big backlash. In any case, it will be very interesting to see how the discussion evolves.
Eduardo also posted "Summary of Posts on this topic":
I wrote a note collecting and commenting on several of the most interesting pieces on this topic. Check out 3.3.1 is more than just about Flash.
Almost as soon as the poll went live, goron said:
I'm curious how relevant this question is on java.net; it would be interesting to see the same poll ran on an Apple dev forum.
That would be an interesting comparison, indeed. As for putting this type of poll on java.net, our poll is a fairly open forum. I certainly wouldn't run a poll asking "What is it about chihuahuas that makes them the best dog in the world?"
Topic of an upcoming java.net poll? Probably not...
But, generally, I'm open to considering a fairly wide spectrum of potential questions, especially when they are posed by someone from the java.net community. So, if you've got an idea for a java.net poll, contact me, or use the java.net Submit Content page and select "Poll Question" in response to "Please choose where you think this item should go on the homepage."
We're very excited to announce the immediate availability of the JavaFX 1.3 platform. This release represents an important upgrade to the product and delivers a range of performance and functional improvements, including: * New and enhanced support for UI controls, CSS skinning, and programmatic layout; * Performance improvements in the JavaFX Runtime * New NetBeans IDE 6.9 Beta with improved editing and an updated JavaFX Composer plug-in * New features and enhanced performance in JavaFX Production Suite...
JavaFX 1.3 has just gone live on JavaFX.com. This release is deceptively small, but has an enormous number of changes under the hood. In this post I will take you through the Top 10 major features, giving you background information I learned from working with the JavaFX team, and flooding you with details on inthttp://forums.java.net/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=79223&tstart=0eresting tidbits you might otherwise miss...
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." - Albert Einstein. Although it is good that everything doesn't happen at once, it is also good, when planning the future, to be able to see everything at once. One of the current trends in user interfaces is the movement away from a page-based approach to a more fluent and spatial approach. The JavaFX application that I'd like to demonstrate for you today uses the latter approach to enable users to take full control of their calendars. Because this application uses JavaFX, it can utilize the Java version of the Google Calendar Data API directly in order to retrieve and update items in the calendar...
My 3 years old MacBook Pro went suddenly dead this week. Annoying as it is, this event allowed me to experience cloud computing like never before. This notebook has been my main computer for the past 3 years. I used it for everything and carried it around wherever I went. One day this week I was using it with tons of apps open as usual (I am known to never close anything...why do we have 4GB RAM for anyway?). I closed the lid without powering off (as I always did) , put the notebook in my bag and went out of the office. A few minutes later, before even getting out of the building, I remembered I had forgotten to send an important email. I then came back to my desk and opened the lid again, but the screen remained dark. As it turns out it would remain dark forever...
Here is an example of yet another hybrid (OSGi + Java EE) application. This is a complete JMS consumer/producer example using OSGi and GlassFish. You can download the complete sample from here. How to use the sample ...
Today’s post highlights the design of Jen.gs, the personal website of Jen Germann. An interesting color scheme uses dark melanzane for background, light gray for main text, light blue for section headers and sunset orange for links; the orange color is also used in the main logo and two separators. The main section uses Cufon for precise and clean typography...
moogin has questions on JXTA on LAN: Hello All, I am interested in developing a P2P application that would run on an internal network with no visibility to the outside world. From what I gather, I can configure this application to find all the other peers on the network. All the...
strive has a question regarding Use of JAXB annotations in web services: Hi, Is it possible to use JAXB annotations on my web service methods so that, after I use the annotation and deploy the web service then the marshalling and un-marshalling of web service messages (XML) will be done by JAXB and it will invoke my...
Java is one of the computer industry's best known brands and most widely deployed technologies. Oracle Fusion Middleware is built on Java technology in support of applications and services written in the Java language. With the acquisition of Sun, Oracle will drive continued innovation and investment in Java technology for the benefit of customers and the Java community.
Registered users can submit event listings for the java.net Events Page using our events submission form. All submissions go through an editorial review before being posted to the site.
Archives and Subscriptions: This blog is delivered weekdays as the Java Today RSS feed. Also, once this page is no longer featured as the front page of java.net it will be archived along with other past issues in the java.net Archive.
Previous Topic
