Moving Java Forward into The Future

Well now. I got here, San Francisco, on Friday night in one piece for another JavaOne 2012 conference. Sunday, today, is the first day of the conference. What will 2013 bring to the Java community world wide? What sort of technology will become more recognised?

I am actually very happy with the way JavaFX has been adopted. It started as this really hard to fathom thing in 2007, with Christopher Oliver. JavaFX Script was fantastic idea and those involved with graphics, rich media, and scene graph knew that Java had nothing to stand worth as competition against Adobe Flex, SilverLight and other technology. I was surprised as many have been in the time between now and 2007, how the mighty Flash and the markitecture of SilverLight fell to the way side.

I do not think this idea of thickness and size of an assembly, bundle or plugin was the entire story for Flash’s demise or Java on the Desktop to really take off. It certainly is the wariness of developers and business distrust of Microsoft technology that left SilverLight as being a corporate investment risk.

The Java platform is the success of the technology and the community around. I might bemoan the fact, the masses take an age to upgrade from J2EE to Java EE, keeping around old application server technology, like WebLogic Server 7, WebSphere 5, and IBM RAD 3, let alone moving to learning a new language like Scala or Groovy or something else. There is great warmth and comfort and a bit of patience around the Java platform. Oracle has to be congratulated for being a relatively gracious working steward and taking over the corporate mess of Sun Microsystems. JavaFX is a case in point.

Finally, we have a great scenegraph library and API that can deliver rich media, graphics and audio up to the standard of the early 21st century. Oracle have kept JavaFX alive, and supported Java EE and they should and will. I think with a little patience and a deliberate design it will all work out.

What is clear is to me, is that whole community deserves a global event where we all can meet up and see the state of the art. I expect exciting times are ahead for the whole Java platform and it will be up to the community to meet the challenges.

Here is my lanyard.

Here is Chris Oliver from 2007, the inventor of JavaFX Script and Form Follows Function (F3).  [Skip the first minute to get to Chris]

If you are at JavaOne 2012, say hello, and  feel free to chat about Java and the future. If you cannot be here, then watch the technology world press for details over the next few days.