JavaFX to Swing: A Help or Hinderance

Friday, November 7, 2008

Frank Sommers has written an insightful post exploring the idea that JavaFX is actually hurting a more mature client-side Java by pulling development effort away from Swing.

In some ways it seems that JavaFX is Sun’s “Big RIA Experiment”. If it pays off, it could bring new blood into client-side Java and ultimately drive more investment and interest in Swing’s direction.

Or, in a seemingly singular effort to push out something so different and “beside the point” of core Java in an attempt to rebrand the Java Platform as a viable RIA contender it could end up fragmenting itself leaving an RIA platform constantly playing a distant third to Flex and Silverlight while leaving behind a stagnant Swing.

Is Sun investing too much effort in trying to distact us from the fact that JavaFX is essentially Applet 2.0? Should they have rather focused in on “boring Java”, giving us a more stable and mature client platform that businesses will actually use and leave the flashy graphics to…well, Flash?

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