JavaFX compiler for Linux very soon? May 11, 2009
Posted by claudio in Desktop, GNU/Linux, Java, Programming, Solaris.Tags: Java, javafx, netbeans, sun
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Good news. It seems that Linux and Solaris are getting the JavaFX development kit. Finally. In the fight against Silverlight and AIR every developer counts. Still some questions remain open:
- Will SUN open JavaFX completely now (don’t make the JDK error twice!)?
- When will -at least- Netbeans get a JavaFX graphical editor in the same level as the Netbeans’ Matisse Swing editor?
- And last but not least, what will Oracle do with JavaFX when it owns SUN?
Anyway, if the apparently well-informed rumour is true, it is indeed good news.
I don’t like monkeys in the house April 24, 2009
Posted by claudio in Desktop, General UNIX, Java, Programming, Ubuntu.Tags: GNU/Linux, Java, mono
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There have been some controversy about the .Net clone on Gnu/Linux: Mono.
I have been running Linux before Mono appeared and I remember the discussions. To be short: most reasons to introduce .Net on Linux are clearly bogus today. If you really want to use a high-level language with a VM, well … use Java (there are java-gtk2 bindings if you prefer a more native look than swing-gtk or swt-gtk). If you want to make it perfect, spend a fraction of the time and money of copying/rewriting a full stack (including a VM) and fix what need to be fixed on Java (specially now that’s GPL2). Besides, there are pretty decent IDEs that make you productive . If Java isn’t your cup of coffee tea (It should be as C# looks pretty similar to me), there are tons of other languages with gtk-bindings (I use gtk2-perl).
Anyway, being a user of a minority OS, there was one argument that stuck then: “we will enable thousands of windows programmers to run their programs unchanged on Linux”. I remember the apocalyptic warnings of “jumping on the .Net boat or drown and disappear”. Guess what, it didn’t happen. And it won’t happen. Windows developers prefer to write for the full and up-to-date .Net stack instead of an outdated Linux-clone. Nothing earth-shocking here. As long as the complete stack is not open (libraries), you will always play -incompatible- catchup.
What did we get instead? Beside a few proprietary applications (that can be counted on one hand), we’ve got some tools and applications that mainly run on Linux. Some of them are very nice, but nothing revolutionary that can not be written in an other language.
Do we need to live in fear of Microsofts lawyers for a few applications that can be written in a risk-free language or stack (e.g. Tomboy => Gnote)? To be honest, as long as the OS and my DE (Gnome) don’t depend on Mono, I don’t really care. If Microsoft sends its lawyers, there is always “apt-get purge libmono0 mono-common”. The problem I see is that Novell is pushing really hard to make Gnome dependant on Mono.
Removing Mono in that situation will mean holding the broken pieces of the Desktop in your hands.
Still no javafx for Linux? March 3, 2009
Posted by claudio in Desktop, Java, Programming.Tags: Java, javafx, Linux, rant
3 comments
I use a lot of Sun software: java, mysql, virtualbox, solaris, solaris cluster, etc.
Today, while having a look at webservices as an alternative to Swing clients, I decided to have a look at Sun’s attempt at the RIA market: Java FX.
Sadly, the javafx sdk has only be released for windows and macos. I guess Sun doesn’t get it that it needs as many developers as possible as its alternative is a few years late compared to the competitors. And a lot of linux users are developers/admins…
I know they are workarounds to get the sdk running on linux, but why bother?
Java 6 update 10 on Ubuntu 8.10 && Firefox November 5, 2008
Posted by claudio in Desktop, Java.Tags: 6u10, Java, Ubuntu
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EDIT: Then new Ubuntu release (9.04) fixes this problem, and installing the plugin can be done by typing this in a console: sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts
When I wanted to test some new features of the latest java 6 re update, I noticed that firefox wasn’t showing any applets at all. Reviving applets from the death is probably voodoo business, but anyway, there is an easy solution:
Install the sun jre (openjdk6 is installed by default):
$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin
Enable the firefox plugin:
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.10/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/
That’s it.
You can test your java-firefox installation here.
Netbeans tip & tricks: Swing dialogs with the wrong size (same as previous dialog) June 13, 2008
Posted by claudio in Desktop, Java.Tags: bug, Java, netbeans
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Netbeans has a killer feature: it’s graphical Swing builder (aka Matisse). It’s fast, flexible and it works. GUI application in no time. Great.
However, when not creating the GUI by hand, it can be difficult to track some bugs. I found out that when using different JDialogs in the same application, resulting in the dialogs having the same size as the first dialog opened. Pretty annoying. This is how to solve it. (more…)
OpenJDK Swing in Gtk clothing: getting there? June 2, 2008
Posted by claudio in Desktop, GNU/Linux, Java.Tags: Desktop, GNU/Linux, Java, Linux, swing
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Sun has a golden opportunity to make the dream of Desktop java reality. Although java is predominant for enterprise applications and on the server room, java on the Deskop – whatever Sun claims – is not a reality.
Things have changed since the days of over-hyped applets. Java SE 6 is nice and getting better and swing – and java in general – have made huge speed improvement (hotspot and co.). More important, java is now free.
Add javadoc of a third party library to netbeans 6.1 April 30, 2008
Posted by claudio in Java.Tags: netbeans java programming trilead
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This should be pretty obvious, but the standard way of adding libraries to a project does not add the javadoc of the library. Neither does the general javadoc configuration (Tools – Java Platform – Javadoc). I use the open source trilead ssh library as an example.
Netbeans 6.1 is out && rant! April 29, 2008
Posted by claudio in Java, Perl, Shell.Tags: netbeans, Perl
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I would have never guessed that one day I’d use Netbeans and like it. Netbeans is really a great IDE for java programming and make a lot of things really easy: db connections (mysql!), GUI graphical editor (aka Matisse) for Swing applications, Webstart (deploy your *desktop* apps from a website), jar creation including jar dependencies, webservices apis (Flickr!, Google, …), subversion support, etc, etc. Really a nice product that has improved a lot.
If only Netbeans would support perl and shell scripts (very important for sysadmins), it would become – at least for me – the IDE to rule them all. For now, I use Eclipse with the epic plugin for perl development (syntax checking, factoring, context assitance, debugging …), and the shelled plugin for shell scripts. Who knows what the future will bring, but working with two IDEs is kind of suboptimal…
EDIT: by now (november 2008) Netbeans 6.5 is out with improved SQL editing, a new PHP editor and beta Python support. A nice and huge step in the right direction, but still no Perl. The support of these similar dynamic languages make it obvious that a good base for dynamic languages entered the Netbeans archticture. Hopefully an implementation Perl will next in line…
