Users who have struggled to learn the Java programming language will be pleased with the news reported by InformationWeek's Charles Babcock, which is that Sun is working on the release of Java FX, a scripting language based on a byte code that can run in the standard Java Virtual Machine (JVM) but that will be much easier to learn and to use than Java itself. Sun plans a demonstration of Java FX during the upcoming JavaOne 2008 Conference.

Babcock explains that, since Java was launched in 1995, an expanded class of scripting languages has grown up around it to take over part of the work that Sun once envisioned for Java itself. Users have come to rely on Perl, Python, and PHP as stand-alone scripting languages, which are used for various services and site control tasks, such as retrieving data from a backend database or tying the operation of one site element to another, he writes.

Javascript is another language that has come to prominence as one of the components of Ajax, Babcock continues. It has frequently been used to build Web page elements that are interactive with end users. Tcl was an early administrative language for inserting commands into a program to manage a server. TheAdobe (NSDQ: ADBE) Flash Player, which can display time-sequenced events, runs on a scripting language similar to Javascript, called Actionscript.

Sun has said that Java FX will function in similar ways for sites built with Java backend components, Babcock writes but, instead of being aimed at Java programmers, Sun will target Java FX at the content creators, illustrators, and site design and layout experts who want an easy to use language to work with the backend Java applications.

"We are aiming for the [Adobe] PhotoShop, Illustrator, content creators, and business users" who work outside the programming realm of Java developers but who rely on their business logic and Web site operations, said Eric Klein, VP of Java marketing.

Jeet Kaul, engineering VP of Java, added that the Java FX package, called FX Player, will include a scripting language, design and coding tools, and a set of APIs for interfacing to backend Java components.

Even though the Java FX code is still under development, Kaul said prototypes of the FX code sets will be demonstrated at the upcoming San Francisco show, with the "separate pieces becoming available over the next few months." [...read more...]

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