Ever since I switched to 64-bit GNU/Linux, at least 674 days ago, I have been living with the fact that the Sun JDK (a.k.a. The Java) for linux-amd64 lacks both Java Plugin and Java WebStart.

Every time I wanted to open one of those JNLP links like the following:

I have to turn around and reach for my Windows machine.

However, with my recently gotten OpenJDK, that turning around motion has become a thing of the past. Because OpenJDK for linux-amd64 includes both a Browser plugin and a Java WebStart player.

Here's me opening today's JavaFX Script sample from James Weaver's blog (Linuxy format, you may need VLC Media Player to view it):

As you can see, I'm furiously getting ready for my JavaFX Desktop SDK presentation at the OCI internal Java lunch this Friday. What I didn't prepare for was the fact that when they said at JavaOne 2008 that the JavaFX Desktop SDK will be ready by July, they meant by the end of July.

Well, I won't be demoing with the JavaFX Desktop SDK then. I'll show what's in the Subversion repository. Hopefully, the product won't be too far from what's in the repo.

I mentioned Etch 55 days ago. That's Cisco open sourcing their messaging protocol software.

Last week, while I was on vacation, Google released Protocol Buffer, their data interchange format software.

I just learned yesterday, through Bruce Eckel's rant piece about Java, that Adobe has open sourced something called BlazeDS, their Java remoting and web messaging software.

It'll be interesting to see who else would opt for releasing their own messaging software as open source rather than adopting one that's already open sourced.

Accoding to joshy, the "JavaFX SDK" Preview Release will happen by the end of the month. A lot of people are excited (, or not) about this release. I'm not sure how much of the audio/video support Christopher Oliver outlined on the openjfx-compiler mailing list will be included.

Nevertheless, this is a good excuse to step away from our daily used Java, and take a look at JavaFX Script.

Q: Will the following JavaFX Script script compile and run without exceptions? If so, what will it print?

import java.lang.System;

var x: Integer = 1024;
var y: Integer = bind x * 4;
System.out.println("x = {x}, y = {y}");

x = 2048;
System.out.println("x = {x}, y = {y}");