What Scene Builder needs YESTERDAY!

[Felix Bembrick]

Really?  My point is, why have such good built-on classes to support the
building of everything from simple animations to complex visualisations if
it is practically impossible to do so?

On 24 November 2014 at 21:02, Tom Eugelink <tbee at tbee.org> wrote:

> I do not think that JavaFX is aiming at replacing flash, HTML and
> javascript are doing a great job there, hence animations are not equally
> important as they were for flash.
>
> Tom
>
>
>
> On 24-11-2014 10:46, Felix Bembrick wrote:
>
>> I am surprised more people have not expressed an opinion on this.  To me,
>> it seems absolutely *vital* to the long term (or any term) success of
>> JavaFX.
>>
>> Haven't any of you ever programmed in Flash?  Can you imagine trying to
>> create any of those complex (or even the simple) animations and
>> visualisations *without* a visual editor and by doing it code alone?  It
>> wouldn't have been practical (read possible) and similarly, and with
>> JavaFX
>> having even richer features, to do this "by hand".
>>
>> To me, this is the reason why we haven't seen any great
>> animations/visualisations/applications using JavaFX and we probably never
>> will until a visual animation editor is available.  Specifying and
>> controlling the motion and appearance of numerous complex objects and
>> their
>> transitions relying exclusively on code would not be possible for even the
>> "gunnest" JFX coder...
>>
>> On 18 November 2014 at 02:48, Richard Bair <richard.bair at oracle.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>  I’m afraid at this time there are no plans for adding an
>>> animation/transition effect editor to Scene Builder, certainly not in the
>>> short-term.
>>>
>>> Thanks
>>> Richard
>>>
>>>  On Nov 13, 2014, at 7:34 PM, Felix Bembrick <felix.bembrick at gmail.com>
>>>>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Java applets were the first "programs" to run inside a web browser and
>>>>
>>> for
>>>
>>>> a (little) while they were flavour of the month.
>>>>
>>>> But then along came Flash which had several advantages such as faster
>>>>
>>> load
>>>
>>>> times, consistent loads and antialiased fonts/graphics and soon
>>>>
>>> completely
>>>
>>>> surpassed applets.
>>>>
>>>> But the MAIN reason why Flash was initially so successful and went on
>>>> for
>>>> years and years of domination is that the Flash tools had an
>>>> Animation/Timeline Editor pretty much from the beginning.  This enabled
>>>> even a novice to drag images around and draw the path they wanted them
>>>> to
>>>> move along, add all sorts of bouncing effects and sounds and the result
>>>>
>>> was
>>>
>>>> the birth of the online greeting card company.
>>>>
>>>> But Flash soon went on to be so much more.  As the Adobe tools improved,
>>>>
>>> so
>>>
>>>> did the SWFs and soon entire websites were written in Flash.
>>>>
>>>> Meanwhile, applet programmers had absolutely nothing remotely similar
>>>> and
>>>> had to try (and I stress try) to tediously hand code any animations and
>>>> transitions and effects and I don't think it ever worked.
>>>>
>>>> Fast forward 15-20 years and now we have JavaFX which doesn't need to
>>>> run
>>>> in the browser, has even more features than Flash, uses hardware
>>>> acceleration for superior performance, has a wide range of built-in
>>>> animations, transitions and effects but STILL we have to hand code any
>>>> animation/transitions.
>>>>
>>>> This is INCREDIBLY inefficient and unless Scene Builder incorporates a
>>>> powerful, sophisticated animation/transition and effect editor VERY,
>>>> VERY
>>>> SOON I fear that the advanced graphics features are never going to be
>>>>
>>> used
>>>
>>>> to their full potential (much to the detriment of JavaFX itself).
>>>>
>>>> Does anyone know if one is in the pipeline?  I see this as one of the
>>>>
>>> most
>>>
>>>> vital features for the JavaFX ecosystem to achieve more penetration and,
>>>> eventually, survive.
>>>>
>>>> Felix
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>