Desktop Java

By Adrian Sutton

Just finished up in the Desktop Java overview session. Good information in there. The summary glosses over some stuff but I think it covers all the important information. The entire session is an overview so it’s really just identifying things that you should look to learn about elsewhere. It looks like some good stuff for Ephox and our user is coming down the pipeline.

Main points:

  • Java on the desktop used to be focussed at the enterprise desktop, now it will focus on becoming far more consumer oriented.
  • JavaFX is cool.
  • Java 6 Update in 1st half of 2008 to include:
    • JRE Detection improvements (funky scripts to get the right JRE installed, seems to bounce off sun.com)
    • Install process improvements (Kernel)
      • Installs just the absolute minimum components of the JRE and then downloads most common components in the background. Installs less used components on demand. Could be great, but could also cause interruptions to users as they work when new components are needed.
    • Quick Starter. Loads Java files into the disk cache at startup or browser startup and tries to keep them there. Not a full JRE running but will probably be as annoying as all those other task bar icons that are wasting resources trying to do the same thing. No wonder computers take so long to load these days.
    • Windows Graphics Acceleration
      • DirectX 9 based pipeline.
      • On by default so actually useful unlike the OpenGL pipeline which is off because of some driver incompatibilities.
      • High performance for all of Swing and Graphics2D.
      • Nimbus. New cross platform look and feel that’s meant to actually look good. Screen shots look pretty awful (gray is not a good choice of color scheme people!)
  • Looking at media improvements in the future.
    • Looks like they want to use native libraries (QuickTime, Windows Media etc) instead of a Java based solution. Seems to be a common trend so hopefully they’ll get it working seamlessly.
  • Animation improvements
    • Easy to apply animations and effects.
    • Better timing facilities
  • More components
    • Date picker.
    • Native file chooser
    • Ability to mix heavyweight and lightweight components.
    • Non-rectangular top level components
    • Translucent windows
  • Applications framework
    • JSR 296
    • Makes it easier to get standalone Swing apps started.
    • Basically just removing boiler plate code, but I suspect it includes more than was shown in the talk.
    • Much, much simpler than something like the NetBeans or Eclipse platforms.
    • Intended to be useful for small to medium size apps instead of the huge apps that NetBeans/Eclipse platforms are good for.
  • Beans Binding (JSR 295)