The List
This is a list of features that Sun Microsystems has to implement in order to become a serious contender in the rich Internet application (RIA) and mobile marked. Failing to support all these items will result in total failure.
- Play and record audio.
MP3, MPEG4 and OGG. - Play and record video. Including capturing and streaming live feeds from web, DV and cell phone cameras. Nobody cares if the codecs are proprietary and not open source.
- A JavaFX “look and feel”. Maybe based on Synth ? Ebay wants Ebay colors. Media branding is crucial, but giving the developer too much freedom might result in an ugly platform. Mobile users prefer a standardized look. Desktop users have huge CPU's and GPU's and don't care about performance as long as the application is cool. Several look and feels will probably make mobile users angry.
- Asset management. If I got 60 AI files with vector graphics and 12 PSD's, how long does it take me to update my JavaFX assets ? Hours ? Minutes ? Seconds ?
- A web browser component with deep API's. DOM access is required. Cell-phones doesn't really have to support this.
- 3D and animation. People want tactile and dynamic user experiences. Everyone talks about 3D, but very few actually use it because it's complicated and resource intensive. But the wow factor is always there. Microsoft tried to sell Vista on the “wow” factor and found that most people had laptops with integrated graphics and stamina mode enabled. The “wow” turned into “suck” real fast.
What is this list based on ? This is simply the combined current feature set of Flash, AIR, Nokia/Symbian and the iPhone. Even mobile phones are now more media savvy than Sun's default JRE.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, gives a hoopla about JavaFX documentation, compilers, example code and future developments without these media API's implemented one hundred percent. Without media JavaFX is Pow-Ray on Irix. With media JavaFX is maybe Lingo on OS X Jaguar.
If Sun choses not to implement these features, then JavaFX is just an emotional response to Google Android. Java ME is the only successful "media" API (games) Sun has ever had and now Nokia, Google and Apple are all trying to take over this marked. The seven people who write vector graphics in JavaFX will never create an economy big enough for people to start making money on consulting deals. And therefore the project is lost before it even reached 1.0.
Check out Jan Erik Paulsen on Twitter.