After spending a few hours scratching the surface of JavaFX I have mixed feelings about it as a platform for developing client side applications.
It is definately a vast improvement on applets and the fact that you can deploy an application compatible with so many possible client machines and browsers is great (assuming you use non-client specific features). Another advantage I see is the ability to integrate other Java code and easily use features like XML parsing and HTTP requests.
The problem is creating GUIs in the platform has somewhat of a learning curve because the code is cloaked in ’script’ style syntax which is supposed to be easier to understand. I’d much prefer something resembling straightforward OO code. It makes using javadoc comments in an IDE such as netbeans impossible due to a lot of the way the syntax works.
The whole point of JavaFX is building rich user interfaces, and I very much believe they can add good value to a website or directly on a desktop/phone (e.g. widgets). However while the platform has this potential – it is difficult utilise in ways other that those found on the JavaFX website and it still seems to be in its infancy as an API. Perhaps the more I get used to the scripting language the more useful I will find it, but the lack of people really doing stuff with JavaFX at the moment suggests I’m not the only one with reservations about it.
