JavaFX for the Java developer presentation
I gave a talk this last Tuesday at the Boulder JUG on the topic of JavaFX for the Java developer. My audience and I both learned a lot from the experience.
What I covered
- What is JavaFX and why do you care?
- Comparisons between Java and JavaFX syntax
- JavaFX language features
- Building a sample application
- Platform support
- Additional resources
How I approached the talk
I took Fred Jean’s advice and used the Codex presentation system which is a Ruby gem that adds to Eric Meyer’s S5. Unlike Fred, though, I opted to use Mercurial to keep track of versioning.
To get some good practice for my talk I hosted a brown-bag discussion at Sun. This was a good idea because it made sure I was prepared fairly early and I got good feedback from my co-workers. Hopefully they learned something as well. I ended up about 20 minutes short during my brown-bag so I added 10 more slides (which hardly helped… I talked much too fast).
What I would change
Since I ran so short at BJUG, I’d probably try to talk about more JavaFX language features and explain them in greater detail than I did. Making jokes during the presentation seemed to go over very well and I might throw in a couple more.
If you missed my talk, you can Check out the slides. I hope the speak about this again at the Denver JUG later this year. Hope to see you there!
Since you work for sun, I would like to tell you that I feel ridiculed (actually I mean f*****)
by Sun with this JavaFX thing. Why dont you provide good and SIMPLE multimedia Api for Java before you come up with a language no Java programmer needs. That SUN failed with Applets has nothing to do with Java language, but with missing the basics: far too long loading times and a missing multimedia Api.
Sorry you feel that way, man.
JavaFX is actually intended for designers as well as programmers. Once you get to know it, I think you’d find that JavaFX is actually pretty simple. I’ll agree that multimedia is not where the JavaFX team wants it yet, but hey, JavaFX 1.0 only came out a few months ago.
Thanks for publishing your efforts Eric. Keep up the good work!
Of course! I hope that you can learn from my mistakes for when you speak ;)
You say that JavaFX is aimed for designers, but why would they leave lets say Flash for a technology that freezes your browser, shows you scary security dialogs, slow to load and also as a bonus pops up a yellow balloon in the task tray telling you that it is Java running?
My intention is not to bash, but seriously…
You’re right that JavaFX doesn’t yet perform how we’d like on the web. Often the only reason so many security dialogs are shown is because some developers don’t realize that they can disable system access to avoid them.
However, the real point I want to make is that JavaFX is best for mobile and TV applications. Flash is likely not coming to any phone for some time, but Java is already on a billion. That’s why. Mobile is where it’s going.
So in other words, skip JavaFX for the web for now.
:)
Note that this is my opinion and in no way reflects how Sun would respond.
If I were developing something web-only forever, I would not be using Flash, Silverlight or JavaFX. JavaFX isn’t going to win from the web.