JavaFX port to iOS/Android status

[Daniel Zwolenski]

Richard,

Thanks for the previous response. 

Are you able to tell us the strategy you guys used for the JVM element in your prototypes to give us a potential starting point? Eg did you guys make it run on Dalvik or use XMLVM or take some other path?

If there's some legal blocker to giving us this info then perhaps a general comment along the lines of 'an approach that may be of particular interest is X' would be sufficient.

John (or anyone), if you come up with a strategy you think may be worth a shot let us know. As I've said before (to the point of being annoying), I think mobile support (along with good deployment options) is key to jfx adoption and survival and so I'm keen to see it develop. This area of native/porting is not something I've got a lot of experience in though so I'd be looking for someone else to lead but I'd be willing to help where I can. 

Thanks,
Dan


On 21/04/2013, at 8:35 PM, Herve Girod <herve.girod at gmail.com> wrote:

>> 
>> Hi Richard,
>> 
>> I knew nothing about XMLVM but my first cursory looks suggests it is
>> nothing
>> more than a way to represent a byte-code based application in a generic way
>> so that it may be easily ported to any architecture.  Given that the JVM
>> itself is not actually a Java byte-code application, how is this going to
>> help with porting it?
>> 
> 
> I am far from knowledgeable on .NET, but I suggest looking how Mono is
> working on Android and iOS. See here for example:
> http://docs.xamarin.com/guides/android/advanced_topics/architecture
> 
> 
>> Getting JavaFX to run on Dalvik may be an easier option but I have heard
>> rumours that Google are seriously looking to remove Java (and "Java-like"
>> technologies such as Dalvik) from all their products in response to the
>> legal wrangling with Oracle.  I expect Java support in their software will
>> be deprecated and eventually phased-out altogether with GWT's Java
>> fundamentals for example being replaced with Dart and so on.  I wouldn't be
>> surprised to see the Android SDK being based on C++ in the not so distant
>> future (or maybe even yet another "new" language).
> 
> 
> Maybe, but I think that if they do that, Google will be the first to "pay".
> I don't think that Oracle get anything from the fact that Google use their
> "proprietary" Java on Android, but rebuilding all what they have done
> before on Dalvik in another language (and making sure it's working) will be
> a LOT of work.
> 
> Hervé
> 
> 
> 2013/4/21 John C. Turnbull <ozemale at ozemail.com.au>
> 
>> Hi Richard,
>> 
>> I knew nothing about XMLVM but my first cursory looks suggests it is
>> nothing
>> more than a way to represent a byte-code based application in a generic way
>> so that it may be easily ported to any architecture.  Given that the JVM
>> itself is not actually a Java byte-code application, how is this going to
>> help with porting it?
>> 
>> Getting JavaFX to run on Dalvik may be an easier option but I have heard
>> rumours that Google are seriously looking to remove Java (and "Java-like"
>> technologies such as Dalvik) from all their products in response to the
>> legal wrangling with Oracle.  I expect Java support in their software will
>> be deprecated and eventually phased-out altogether with GWT's Java
>> fundamentals for example being replaced with Dart and so on.  I wouldn't be
>> surprised to see the Android SDK being based on C++ in the not so distant
>> future (or maybe even yet another "new" language).  And it's not just
>> Oracle
>> that Google has in its sights with the recent news that they are abandoning
>> WebKit in favour of Blink which would appear to be driven more from its
>> competition with Apple that any genuine technological need.  Don't worry, I
>> know you cannot comment on any of these issues ;-)
>> 
>> I am going to do my own research into what is available that may be
>> suitable
>> to form the basis of an iOS/Android VM capable of running JavaFX
>> applications and will report back when I have some concrete results.
>> 
>> -jct
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Richard Bair [mailto:richard.bair at oracle.com]
>> Sent: Saturday, 20 April 2013 11:32
>> To: John C. Turnbull
>> Cc: openjfx-dev at openjdk.java.net
>> Subject: Re: JavaFX port to iOS/Android status
>> 
>> The remainder of the iOS and Android code is slated to go out (along with
>> the rest of Prism) early next week if all goes well. But these ports don't
>> include a VM, so somebody from "the outside" is going to have to get it up
>> and running on Dalvik or XMLVM or something. Certainly *not* an
>> insurmountable challenge for one so motivated ;-)
>> 
>> Richard
>> 
>> On Apr 19, 2013, at 5:38 PM, John C. Turnbull <ozemale at ozemail.com.au>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> What's the status of the JavaFX port to iOS and Android?  Has anyone
>>> got seriously involved and started to make progress?  Is there someone
>>> who is overseeing the project that I can contact?
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Thanks,
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -jct
>>> 
>> 
>>