6uN: le nouveau petit nom du "consumer JRE" en route pour JavaFX

Si vous avez entendu parler de JavaFX, vous n'avez peut-être pas entendu parler du "consumer JRE". Dans tous les cas, il faut désormais parler de "Java SE 6 Update N" pour ce pré-requis pour JavaFX qui couvre un outil de déploiement, un kernel, un quick-starter, un mécanisme de mise à jour, un nouveau look-and-feel (Nimbus) et plus encore. Le premier build est disponible ici. Plus de détails sur le blog de l'architecte Client Java: Chet Haase

Même si JavaFX a besoin de ces améliorations pour fournir une meilleure expérience à l'utilisateur, 6uN sera bénéfique pour Swing et tout autre application coté client.

( oct. 02 2007, 12:01:01 AM CEST ) Permalink

SDPY - Client Riche

Il y a exactement deux ans déjà, j'écrivais ce billet de retour d'une présentation sur les clients riches par Valtech. Depuis, l'eau a coulé sous les ponts, c'est le moins qu'on puisse dire :
•  XAML est devenu WPF et se décline sous d'autres plate-formes avec Silverlight
•  JDNC a été pour partie intégré en partie dans Java 6 et Swing a désormais un framework et du binding (outillé avec NetBeans Matisse)
•  Après avoir tordu XML dans tous les sens avec JDNC, JavaFX Script a été annoncé (sans XML)
•  AIR (ex-Apollo) prend de l'ampleur mais toujours pas résolument open source et quoi qu'on en dise un concurrent à Java
•  XUL est toujours une techno de niche
•  GWT est une approche (trop?) révolutionnaire
•  Eclipse RCP et NetBeans Platform progressent chacun de leur coté avec les mêmes arguments (NetBeans est full Swing).
•  on utilise et on abuse d'AJAX à tous les étages
•  JSF continue son bonhomme de chemin avec l'intégration dans Java EE 5 de plus en plus utilisé et dans JBoss Seam
•  Google Gears promet de repousser encore un peu les limites du web

Pas simple de faire une présentation exhaustive sur le sujet, mais l'intérêt est toujours aussi grand.

( sept. 23 2007, 01:56:34 PM CEST ) Permalink

I've been using Nimbus for a while...

...and the final version too.

I was reading Jasper Pott's blog which has mostly very enthusiastic reactions and people commenting about how some things will just not be usable (mainly scrollbars). Well, I've been using Solaris Express which comes with the (GTK Nimbus theme) for a little while now and I must say that I really love the scrollbars (even them being a bit buggy). I'd encourage you to try Solaris Express (or a recent update to Solaris 10) and see for yourself.

So now that you know my preferences, the Java Nimbus look-n-feel doesn't have to be the exact same copy as the Solaris GTK theme and I'm sure Jasper and friends will listen to all your tastes ;).

( juin 08 2007, 09:22:39 AM CEST ) Permalink Comments [2]

Open source is not about "good enough" clones

This JavaOne was certainly big on client technologies which probably made my friend Romain very happy. Just looking at three announcements it may sound as if these are simply clones to existing technologies: JavaFX is compared to Flash, WorldWind Java to Google Earth and Project Wonderland (and derived MPK20) to SecondLife.

They all have Java in common but that's not the point. I would argue that community work and openness is what makes plausible the promise of taking existing concepts to a new level. Open source JavaFX runs everywhere, not just in most browsers, but on all platforms. WorldWind Java is not extensible via plugins, it *is* a plugin. Project Wonderland is bringing business collaboration to what today is essentially anonymous gaming.

( mai 14 2007, 05:00:00 PM CEST ) Permalink

Consumer JRE

Being quite concentrated this year at JavaOne on server-side and GlassFish content, I did not attend Ethan's talk on the Consumer JRE (né Java Browser Edition and aka Java Kernel). Some time ago I had written down my thoughts on how doable and needed I thought this was (and I wasn't all that positive I must say). Now with JavaFX around the corner, this is becoming a high priority and a quick chat with Chet Haase has me more positive about the possible size improvements.

The numbers are now as follows: entire JRE (Java 6) is under 11Mb. HelloWorld requires a 2Mb download. Notepad, Swing Set, and LimeWire translate to something between 3 and 4 Mb downloads. The improvements over what I had measured as due to dynamic libraries (dll, so) optimizations (I had only looked at rt.jar which is only responsible for half the JRE size) or even removal while some others are relative and due to JDK 6 bundling more stuff than 5.0 which I did the review for (JAX-WS is the most obvious example).

Results coming to a JRE near you as soon as for 6.0 update 2.

( mai 14 2007, 11:06:41 AM CEST ) Permalink

SparkAngels dans la cour du Web 2.0

J'en parlais il y a quelque temps déjà, et depuis il semble que le service d'entre-aide SparkAngels connaisse un succès mérité. Cependant, tout projet de ce genre ne peut pas raisonnablement prétendre être dans la mouvance Web 2.0 sans avoir une API. C'est désormais chose faite et comme toujours dans ces cas, la participation de la communauté des développeurs devient soudain possible et souhaitable ("Quoi que vous fassiez, les gens les plus intelligents ne travaillent pas pour vous", -Bill Joy).

( mai 05 2007, 11:39:27 PM CEST ) Permalink

Nimbus for the GlassFish Update Center?

There's a lot happening in both the server and the clients Java camps. Of course JSR 295 and 296 are the most exciting, but in the community space, I find the work on the Nimbus Look-and-Feel (which I am kinda already using every day since it's based on the Solaris Gnome theme) sounds very exciting.

Of course I could use this new Nimbus look and feel and apply it to NetBeans (the -ui option makes that trivial and I'm still not sure why this is not a standard JVM/Swing option just yet), but I'll let Roman and friends do that. It's probably not yet well known, but GF now has an Update Center as part of v2. It's a separate application from the admin UI and it is Swing-based. Here's what it looks like:

Unfortunately, after some hacking do change the look and feel, the first very good impression I initially got from using SwingSet with Nimbus didn't translate to GlassFish's update center:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NullPointerException
       at javax.swing.JTable.setSelectionBackground(JTable.java:2454)
       at javax.swing.plaf.synth.SynthTableUI.updateStyle(SynthTableUI.java:117)
       at javax.swing.plaf.synth.SynthTableUI.installDefaults(SynthTableUI.java:95)
       at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicTableUI.installUI(BasicTableUI.java:1354)
       at javax.swing.JComponent.setUI(JComponent.java:668)
       at javax.swing.JTable.setUI(JTable.java:3526)
       at javax.swing.JTable.updateUI(JTable.java:3582)
       at javax.swing.JTable.(JTable.java:614) I'll keep looking...

In the mean time, the GlassFish Update Center is a tool for making documentation, product updates, extensions and even partner software available to the entire GlassFish user community. This is only the beginning.

( avr. 19 2007, 02:04:00 AM CEST ) Permalink

Mise à jour Java 6 update 1

Liste des bugs corrigés.

( avr. 18 2007, 09:40:49 AM CEST ) Permalink Comments [7]

Romain likes it ajaxless
My friend Romain has his interview up over at InfoQ.

( févr. 01 2007, 05:36:15 PM CET ) Permalink

Machines virtuelles, portabilité réelle
Et si on mettait le dernier graphique de Fred Cavazza en perspective avec les propos de Elliotte Rusty Harold qui bashe SWT?
En attendant Apollo, il reste XUL et NetBeans Platform/Java... Tutorial, FAQ, blog et livre sur le sujet.

( janv. 19 2007, 09:46:12 AM CET ) Permalink

Yest another consumer desktop java app
I've recently commented on two consumer desktop java applications here and there.

Here's yet another one: KidTunes 2.

It's a simplified UI for kid on a real iTunes library (no harm done to the music library claims the web site! :). There's both a Java Web Start version and a packaged Windows version available to download. Java 1.5 required. Apple version soon to be released.
It's great to see all those useful apps out there.

( janv. 04 2007, 04:45:19 PM CET ) Permalink

F3, Phobos and Shoal
Of course the "Java Libre" news from Sun is this week's big news..
I would also like to point to three new code drops:
- Shoal : JXTA for GlassFish Clustering. Overview here.
- F3 : quite elegant Swing scripting (call it a DSL if you want), an animation library and much more all about to be open sourced.
- Phobos : server-side scripting with development and debug tools and REST & Atom support.

Phobos is being noticed in several places. I'm very curious to see how it plays out.
Actually, all of the abovecould be combined. Kinda fun having Swing on the client and JavaScript on the server....

( nov. 16 2006, 09:16:00 PM CET ) Permalink