Even in 2009, when Oracle announced its plans to buy Sun Microsystems, it expressed support for JavaFX which is a multimedia software platform. Now, in early April 2012, Oracle announced another move to please the skeptics. Oracle will appoint two advocates for the JavaFX software platform. However, many consider that this move might be a bit too late and insignificant for the JavaFX platform to dominate the market. Sun launched JavaFX in 2007 and its primary goal was to build high quality media applications.
Oracle’s Support For JavaFX
Since the launch of JavaFX, many other technologies have arrived for creating graphically oriented and rich looking applications. Some of these technologies are Microsoft Silverlight, HTML 5, Adobe Flash and Apple iOS. When Sun was acquired by Oracle, many people pondered over the future of JavaFX. Oracle answered these speculations by releasing JavaFX 2.0 in 2011, and it also plans on releasing JavaFX 3.0 in summer of 2013. JavaFX 3.0 is already being touted as the next generation of Java clients. Oracle also said, after its acquisition of Sun was complete, that there would no longer be large gaps between successive releases. They followed it up with the release of JDK 7.
To further extend their support for Java, Oracle’s Director of Java Technology Outreach, Sharat Chander stated that from April 2 onwards, two prominent personalities from the world of JavaFX would support Oracle. These two advocates were revealed to be Stephen Chin and Jim Weaver. They are expected to join the Java Evangelist team of Oracle. Chander also states that people can expect the advocates to be involved in various activities which will make the best use of their JavaFX expertise. This information was released by Chander on the Java Source blog. Oracle did not reveal anything further, even after requests for more information.
How JavaFX Has Changed
The hiring of the two experts showcases the commitment of Oracle towards JavaFX. Analyst Al Hilwa adds that the new approach by Oracle allows them to keep the good things from JavaFX technology and remove the detractions. Oracle will be able to retain the rich GUI capabilities that come with the language but they will not have to deal with the scripting language part. Hilwa also states that he likes the method being used as it delivers more value to the community. Before Oracle changed its strategy in 2011, the scripting language used in JavaFX was not seen as very useful because plug-ins were slowly being replaced by HTML 5 features.
If you think that Apple’s staunch resistance against having Java on iOS platforms will deter Oracle, then you should think again. Oracle has already shown that JavaFX can run on an iOS device, while Google’s Android uses JavaFX. Despite all the changes and progress being made by Oracle, it seems difficult for JavaFX to compete with the likes of HTML 5 and Silverlight in the present scenario.
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