Foreword

I remember it distinctly, like it was yesterday. Standing center stage at Moscone Center when we launched JavaFX at JavaOne 2007. We promised to build a world-class client platform for Java. With the world watching with skeptical eyes and in a crowded client arena, we set out to build the dream. In hindsight, it was a rather ambitious goal.

Fast forward four years, with the release of JavaFX 2, we have taken a huge leap forward in fulfilling that promise. As the vision unfolded, our product plans have shifted to match the evolving RIA market and what developers and the Java community told us they were looking for. As someone who was there at the inception of JavaFX and has watched it mature over the last four years to this current release, my feelings are akin to a parent watching a toddler blossom.

Jim Weaver and Stephen Chin have been traveling through the evolution of JavaFX with me. They have both presented on JavaFX at numerous international conferences and have been developing with and blogging about JavaFX since 2007. Jim is a 30-year software veteran and has authored several books on Java, as well as articles for Java Magazine and Oracle Technology Network. He has also developed numerous JavaFX applications for a wide variety of customers.

Stephen is passionate about open source technologies and is the the founder of WidgetFX and JFXtras. He also has a deep passion for improving development technologies and processes, as well as agile development methodologies.

Johan Vos is co-founder of LodgOn and holds a PhD in applied physics. His interest lies in the enterprise communication aspects of JavaFX, combining the world of large servers with end-user devices. Johan's analogy to physics: The grand unified theory combines quantum mechanics (small) with relativity theory (large); similarly in software, Java combines JavaFX with Java EE. Dean Iverson is a longtime client developer with a great eye for creating elegant user interfaces. He develops GroovyFX libraries and is a contributor to the JFXtras project. He has been developing and blogging about JavaFX since 2007. Weiqi Gao holds a PhD in mathematics. His expertise is in the language aspects of JavaFX as is reflected in the chapters on Properties and Bindings and Collections and Concurrency.

Today, the core JavaFX team at Oracle still has several of the developers who were part of the early versions of JavaFX and we also have new engineers who have joined us. As we move ahead and open source JavaFX, we are looking forward to having more developers and experts from the extended Java community join us in making JavaFX the number one choice for client development.

I am proud and honored to be part of this key software technology. Given the length of experience and depth of expertise in all aspects of JavaFX and across the Java platform, I cannot think of a better group of authors to bring you JavaFX 2. I hope you will enjoy this book and find JavaFX as satisfying as I have found it over the years. I hope it piques your interest sufficiently to join the JavaFX community in making JavaFX the platform of choice for clients.

Nandini Ramani
Vice President, Fusion Middleware Group
Oracle Corporation