JavaFX Too Late...But Who Cares
I think around 2005 AJAX crept into buzz worthy status. Book publishers were happy again. Eric Pascarello
got to laugh at everyone for making fun of his love for JavaScript.
Rich Internet Application became the defacto term for web 2.0. And
developing web applications now meant knowing nearly 10 entirely
different technologies. I'm not complaining. It has paid my bills as
well.
Then, all of a sudden, and it seemed as if it were out of nowhere, Flex announced itself to the world. Microsoft counters with Silverlight. Sun realizes they dropped the ball, again, and started working on JavaFX. Here is how I remember it going down.
Macromedia announces Flex. Right out of the gate they had the FlexBuilder IDE, all the widgets you really needed, Data Service Providers, documentation, tutorials, evangalists. Adobe buys Macromedia and it gets even bigger. Flex goes open source. Everyone is talking about it. Book publishers get to make money again. Key Sun engineers leave Sun and go to work for Adobe. But where are the Flex driven applications? Where are the AIR applications? I'm sure some of you will drop a few links in the comments. But considering the number of blogs I read the the number of different kinds of websites I visit not only for fun but also to try and keep abreast of the latest and greatest going on in development, I have yet to run across a Flex driven web site.
On the heals of Flex Microsoft announces Silverlight. Support in the latest Visual Studio already there. Documentation, evangalists, controls, Data Service Providers, integration with all that is .NET. Book publishers are happy again. But where are all the Silverlight driven web sites/applications? Again, I haven't ran across any.
JavaFX announces itself to the world. There is an SDK you can download. Little to no documentation. No IDE support. Not even a beta version is available. A year later we have some documentation. A couple of books. Still no 1.0 release. Netbeans is the only IDE with true built in support. Doesn't work that great on Linux (even though Java is multiplatform). Obviously, no non-demo applications driven with JavaFX. The JavaFX website isn't even driven by JavaFX.
What does all this mean? Nothing really. These RIA technologies are popular the same way all these Web Frameworks are popular. Everyone thinks they are cool. Everyone blogs about them. In the real world, no one really uses them. They are all designed for cookie cutter web applications which we all know don't really exist.
With that said, FLAME ON!
Then, all of a sudden, and it seemed as if it were out of nowhere, Flex announced itself to the world. Microsoft counters with Silverlight. Sun realizes they dropped the ball, again, and started working on JavaFX. Here is how I remember it going down.
Macromedia announces Flex. Right out of the gate they had the FlexBuilder IDE, all the widgets you really needed, Data Service Providers, documentation, tutorials, evangalists. Adobe buys Macromedia and it gets even bigger. Flex goes open source. Everyone is talking about it. Book publishers get to make money again. Key Sun engineers leave Sun and go to work for Adobe. But where are the Flex driven applications? Where are the AIR applications? I'm sure some of you will drop a few links in the comments. But considering the number of blogs I read the the number of different kinds of websites I visit not only for fun but also to try and keep abreast of the latest and greatest going on in development, I have yet to run across a Flex driven web site.
On the heals of Flex Microsoft announces Silverlight. Support in the latest Visual Studio already there. Documentation, evangalists, controls, Data Service Providers, integration with all that is .NET. Book publishers are happy again. But where are all the Silverlight driven web sites/applications? Again, I haven't ran across any.
JavaFX announces itself to the world. There is an SDK you can download. Little to no documentation. No IDE support. Not even a beta version is available. A year later we have some documentation. A couple of books. Still no 1.0 release. Netbeans is the only IDE with true built in support. Doesn't work that great on Linux (even though Java is multiplatform). Obviously, no non-demo applications driven with JavaFX. The JavaFX website isn't even driven by JavaFX.
What does all this mean? Nothing really. These RIA technologies are popular the same way all these Web Frameworks are popular. Everyone thinks they are cool. Everyone blogs about them. In the real world, no one really uses them. They are all designed for cookie cutter web applications which we all know don't really exist.
With that said, FLAME ON!
Re: JavaFX Too Late...But Who Cares
ok. i'll bite.
Flex Showcase
AIR Showcase
AIR Marketplace
Also it's hard to reference all of the internal / behind the firewall sites being built with Flex. But if you take a look at the customer list for Flex you will get an idea of who else is building Flex applications.
-James (Adobe)
Flex Showcase
AIR Showcase
AIR Marketplace
Also it's hard to reference all of the internal / behind the firewall sites being built with Flex. But if you take a look at the customer list for Flex you will get an idea of who else is building Flex applications.
-James (Adobe)
Re: JavaFX Too Late...But Who Cares
Heh :)
I totaly agree but there is a RIA applications ... not AIR applications not even Silverlight or WPF or JavaFX applications but there "is" RIA applicaitons. JavaFX just give us a chance to use and create such a RIA applications like the applications that exists it dont force us to use it. For example I am a linux guy and i LIKE gnome no no I Loveee gnome and I use Avant-Window-Naviator you know it ? it's RIA :) and its created with python for example :) its cool right ? its cool to have a way to create apps like this with JavaFX for example check WidgetFX project nice :) I will start creating widgets today WHY ? because I can:) so the RIA apps just give a chance. Ou yes and about flex/air I use parleys AIR application every day.
Re: JavaFX Too Late...But Who Cares
You clearly don't live in the real world
I've worked in SAP .. there's Flex being used all over the place .. more and more everyday .. being integrated with several core SAP products .. SAP competitors .. Oracle, Salesfoce are using Flex .. Another enterprise biggie and also an ex-employer of mine EMC is integrating Flex into the Documentum suite .. I'm sure these teams are exploring other RIA options too and will use them when viable. That's the state in the enterprise world.
In the open commercial web there are applications like Buzzword (bought by Adobe) .. Picnik (integrated by Flickr and several other photo publishing sites) .. Ribbit (bought by British Telecom) .. Yahoo Web Messenger .. all built in Flex ... also pretty much every Twitter desktop clien is built with Flex/AIR
I could go on proving you live far away from the real world.
Mrinal
Re: JavaFX Too Late...But Who Cares
"Doesn't work that great on Linux"
Don't forget, doesn't work on non Java6 capable macs either.
Also, I believe you will see Silverlight in use very soon, pushed by the Olymipics. So I think we'll see RIA's become fairly popular in some segments, but JavaFX really does look for too little too late.
Re: JavaFX Too Late...But Who Cares
Gregg
I did not mean to be rude, I'm sorry about that .. re reading my own comment I do find it somewhat offensive,I apologize :)
But, you should do some more research here .. there are many Real World applications using Flex today both in the enterprise and outside .. Silverlight is catching on too (it has its pluses) .. JavaFX we still have to see
Mrinal
Re: JavaFX Too Late...But Who Cares
Gregg,
I'm glad you were not offended :) ... my latest blog post is evidence of how seriously people in the enterprise are taking these technologies .. so much so that SAP is integrating Flex into their primary UI technology Web Dynpro link .. this is of course just one example, there's a lot happening out there.
.. Mrinal
Re: JavaFX Too Late...But Who Cares
There hasn't seen much SilverLight apps out there simply because its best version to date is still in beta. But don't count on that. For years I've been fed up with Javascript which looks like a bad joke compared with any serious desktop dev framework. It feels as if I were hacking instead of developing when coding web apps in Javascript/HTML. It sucks big time. Now finally we don't have to suffer any more: Adobe, M$ and Sun start this joint "let's wipe Javascript off the face of the planet" compaign. God bless them.