Is it too late for JavaFX to succeed

JavaFX 1.2 Production Suite features tools to export graphical assets from the popular (though three-year-old) Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Adobe Illustrator CS3 applications to JavaFX Script Code. Also planned is an authoring tool for designers. "It's an aggregator, actually, so designers can build their different content," Ramani says. Additionaly, a preview of JavaFX Composer, which plugs into NetBeans and leverages JavaFX, is available for visual editing of form-based UIs.

"We have a lot of exciting things we're doing in the Java client space, including fixing the deployment model, the plug-in, which for years people have been telling us needs to be addressed," Ramani says. Going forward, unified deployment will be featured for Java across multiple screens, including mobile, TV, desktop, and browser, she adds.

How a JavaFX fan compares the RIA to its rivals Oracle of course praises JavaFX: "JavaFX is actually a rich media platform," Ramani says. "It [works] really well for Internet-based dynamic media."

Also standing in JavaFX's corner is JavaFX developer Jim Weaver, a senior vice president of technology at VNI Media. The platform, he says, is coming along quite well: "There are issues that are being improved [upon] everyday regarding deployment of Java and JavaFX applications." These issues include speeding deployment for the Java Runtime Environment, such as via the Java SE 6 Update 10, he says, reducing the deployment-time gap between JavaFX and Flash.

HTML5, meanwhile, will be cool, but it is not a true rich Internet application platform, Weaver says. "[HTML5] is still a hypertext markup language and it's meant for sharing documents. It is not at its core a rich Internet application platform," he says.