JavaFX launched their technical preview today. I had the privilege to talk earlier this week with Joshua Marinacci one of the engineers working on JavaFX. I learned that the preview SDK that was released today is just a piece of the overall JavaFX puzzle.

Why Should I Care About JavaFX

Many developers who visit this site work in AJAX, Flash, Flex, Silverlight, AIR, or other established platforms. Seeing another entry into the RIA landscape can at times appear to be unnecessary. However, the plans for JavaFX seem very intriguing. While in the beginning JavaFX will be able to be deployed on the computer, the plan is for it to expand to mobile devices and televisions. Time will tell if JavaFX will become a major player among the RIA elites, but this Preview SDK is the first real chance for developers to experience and critique JavaFX based on its merits (and not on promises).

What the Preview Includes

The technical preview includes several pieces to help you build and create your first JavaFX application. Note however, that this is not the complete JavaFX toolset. There are still some developer and designer tools that are in the works for the 1.0 release of JavaFX later this year.

• - Compiler and Runtime Tools
• - Netbeans 6.1 Plugin for JavaFX
• - Project Nile: Plugins for Photoshop CS3 and Illustrator CS3 that allow for integration with JavaFX
• - Documentation
• - Tools and Samples

Who Should Download the Preview SDK

In the future JavaFX is slated to have a full set of tools for both designers and developers. However, the Preview SDK is focused mainly on developers. While the Project Nile tools are useful in integrating visual assets from Photoshop and Illustrator, the main tool for developing JavaFX applications is NetBeans (and Sun expressed that this plugin will eventually expand for other IDE's).

Resources

If you are intrerested in downloading the Preview SDK to work with JavaFX, here are the resources that you will need to know about.

JavaFX Site
Preview SDK Download
JavaFX Reference
JavaFX Blog
JavaFX Screencasts
Beginner Tutorial Series

Call For Questions

Let us know what questions you have for for the JavaFX team. Leave a comment, and I will take a sampling of the questions and relay them to the team.

Read more from David Tucker.