I never fully understood JavaFX script. It seemed like a nice enough language, but it neither completely replaced Java nor integrated well with it. Furthermore, some of the features of its library were sorely missing from Java, but not accessible from it. This is why it is refreshing to see the new
JavaFX Roadmap. Its main tenet is that JavaFX script is being discontinued and that JavaFX becomes a framework for Java with many exciting features:
- Binding API: Well, OK, yet another one. Here is hoping that it will not be too cumbersome and find broad acceptance. The API will include observable collections (which are handy for GUI lists and tables).
- Media framework: for audio and video. About time.
- HTML5 support: parsing and display. Also desperately needed in Swing (SWT already has reasonable HTML display support).
- New table control: Apart from better looks, combining it with observable collections should get one the comfort offered by Glazed Lists.
- New rich text control.
Finally Java gets back the human resources that had been moved to JavaFX script by Sun. The new JavaFX features will make it much more appealing for developing desktop applications.
Update 2010-12-15: Why the new JavaFX makes sense
