JavaFX features in JDK 9

[Mike Hearn]

Be fair, chaps. WebGL is not exactly accessible.

Desktop Linux is an extremely niche platform. JFX is open source. If
someone wants accessibility support on Linux, they can certainly contribute
patches to implement it.

The JDK9 plan looks OK to me. It doesn't sound exciting but "support
Jigsaw" actually translates to a fairly large set of new features, as stuff
that had to be done by hacking the internals before will finally get
surfaced with proper documented APIs. It'll make the developer experience
more pleasant.

With respect to things like "support WebRTC" or "support WebGL" -
seriously? WebRTC is useful for exactly one kind of app, video chat. It
seems to have been driven primarily so Google could make a Skype competitor
inside Gmail without having to make a downloadable plugin. There are
already many competing video call apps that work fine.

As for WebGL, you can already do OpenGL from within Java just fine. Being
able to do arbitrary GL within an FX scene graph would be nice for some
apps, but of course, on Windows you'd really need to be using Direct3D or
some kind of performance-hurting translation layer as WebGL itself uses.

If I had a single wish it'd be for better rich text support, like a rich
text editor component (maybe based on Tomas Mikula's work). I know that
WebKit can be used to do this but it's always been sort of glitchy and what
you get out is HTML which then can't be rendered easily in a regular
TextView. Unlike many of these other suggestions such a component would be
useful for business apps, and a basic one seems achievable in a reasonable
budget especially if it's based on Tomas' existing code.


On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 1:13 PM, Jack Moxley <jack at moxley.co.uk> wrote:

> Maybe it should its aspirations a little higher, especially with the
> advent of unity, webgl or even scenegraph impls such as jmonkeyengine that
> do.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On 30 Jun 2015, at 09:42, Felix Bembrick <felix.bembrick at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > <cough>JavaFX has *never* claimed to be write once, run anyway</cough>
> >
> >
> >> On 30 Jun 2015, at 18:13, Mike <mikegps1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> <cough>write once, run anywhere</cough>
> >>
> >> This about sums it up!
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> On Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 12:12 AM, Jack Moxley <jack at moxley.co.uk>
> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> <cough>write once, run anywhere</cough>
> >>>
> >>> Sent from my iPhone
> >>>
> >>>>> On 29 Jun 2015, at 21:45, Michał Zegan <webczat_200 at poczta.onet.pl>
> >>>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >>>> Hash: SHA1
> >>>>
> >>>> Does it mean platform support for linux won't be implemented now, or
> >>>> at all?
> >>>> I usually use windows, but still depend on that support because I
> >>>> sometimes use linux, so I am interested about that.
> >>>>
> >>>> W dniu 2015-06-29 o 22:40, Kevin Rushforth pisze:
> >>>>> There is public API in 8u40 to support accessibility. Applications
> >>>>> using standard JavaFX controls can, for example, use the
> >>>>> accessibleText property to define the text that the screen reader
> >>>>> will speak or the accessibleHelp property to provide a more
> >>>>> detailed description. These properties have reasonable defaults,
> >>>>> but can be overridden by applications. Additionally, if you use the
> >>>>> "labelFor" property to point to a Control that the Label is
> >>>>> associated with, the accessibility framework will use that when the
> >>>>> screen reader is active.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Custom controls can override the queryAccessibleAttribute,
> >>>>> executeAccessibleAction, and notifyAccessibleAttributeChanged
> >>>>> methods.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> As for platform support, we currently support Windows and Mac
> >>>>> platforms. We have no plan to make FX accessible on Linux .
> >>>>>
> >>>>> -- Kevin
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Michał Zegan wrote: I saw it, and it seems promising, but: first,
> >>>>> there is probably, or I heard it wrong? no public api for making
> >>>>> accessibility related stuff... Also, I believe there is no linux
> >>>>> accessibility bridge as opposed to windows and mac. And I do not
> >>>>> know if I am wrong, or when this is going to be implemented.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> W dniu 2015-06-29 o 20:30, Kevin Rushforth pisze:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>>>> JavaFX accessibility is already implemented and was delivered
> >>>>>>>> in JDK 8u40.
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> -- Kevin
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Michał Zegan wrote: What about accessibility work? Work on it
> >>>>>>>> has been started, but not sure if it is still targetted for
> >>>>>>>> 9.
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> W dniu 2015-06-27 o 20:16, Mike pisze:
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>> a lot of FULL blown Webrtc support and building
> >>>>>>>>>>> something in Javafx (like Scene Builder) that Proves
> >>>>>>>>>>> Webrtc support would be awesome. Ditto to Webgl
> >>>>>>>>>>> support.
> >>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>> On Sat, Jun 27, 2015 at 8:07 AM, Kevin Rushforth
> >>>>>>>>>>> <kevin.rushforth at oracle.com
> >>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>> wrote:
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>> Hi Felix,
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>> Sorry for the delay. Most of us were still pretty
> >>>>>>>>>>>> focused on 8u60, but we are turning our attention to
> >>>>>>>>>>>> JDK 9 now.
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>> The focus for JDK 9 is Jigsaw. The currently planned
> >>>>>>>>>>>> big features (JEPs) for FX in JDK 9 are these:
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>> JEP 253: Prepare JavaFX UI Controls & CSS APIs for
> >>>>>>>>>>>> Modularization JEP 257: Update JavaFX/Media to Newer
> >>>>>>>>>>>> Version of GStreamer
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>> Related to Jigasw, we intend to look into new API for
> >>>>>>>>>>>> heavily used internal methods / classes since they
> >>>>>>>>>>>> will no longer be accessible otherwise. We also plan
> >>>>>>>>>>>> to update WebKit at least one more time, and will
> >>>>>>>>>>>> likely do a few RFEs such as better Hi-DPI support
> >>>>>>>>>>>> (with API control) on Mac, Windows, Linux.
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>> We don't currently plan any other big features for 9,
> >>>>>>>>>>>> but will consider additional RFEs if they are
> >>>>>>>>>>>> important to enough developers and if they fit into
> >>>>>>>>>>>> the time frame.
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>> -- Kevin
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>> Felix Bembrick wrote:
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>> Anyone got anything or is there a link somewhere
> >>>>>>>>>>>>> that talks about these?
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>> On 15 June 2015 at 22:00, Felix Bembrick
> >>>>>>>>>>>>> <felix.bembrick at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> I realise we are a long way off JDK 9 still and
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> with crucial features such as Jigsaw still a
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> little up in the air but is it possible someone
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> could itemise the most likely new features,
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> enhancements and bug fixes that we will see in
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> JavaFX when JDK 9 is released?
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Of course it's purely speculation at this point
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> but it would assist me greatly to have some of
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> idea of where JavaFX is heading and which areas
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> are seen as most important.
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Thanks,
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>> Felix
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> >>>
>
>