Something big is affecting the way we perform web design. During the popular JavaOne developers conference in San Francisco a new programming language was announced that will threaten Ajax. JavaFX by Sun Microsystems is poised to challenge the hottest programming language Ajax but more importantly other new programming languages by Microsoft and Adobe. This is truly a grudge match between all the major tech companies as each has its own strong language.
JavaFX is being recognized as perhaps one of the strongest programming language and will include umbrella technology such as JavaFX Mobile and JavaFX script. The new JavaFX language doesn’t operate like Java instead it operates outside of the browser making it a powerful platform. While Ajax is a major competitor it will be essentially obsolete after JavaFX’s release. Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Apollo will be the real competition as each will be vying for the gap Ajax has left behind.
JavaFX
JavaFX will rival Ajax but is meant to rival Flash/Flex and Silverlight. JavaFX will focus less on internet applications and more on highly animated applications. This code will help eliminate some of the problems with Ajax as well because Ajax requires a lot of JavaScript passed through the internet. Sometimes this can have uncontrollable and malicious code in it. In addition JavaFX will focus greatly on non internet use which will allow application in Ajax or Google Apps to run while disconnected from the internet.
Silverlight
Microsoft recently released Silverlight a cross-browser technology that can be used for interactive web applications. This is going to piggy back on .NET technology and is competing more with Adobe Flash than anything else. The beta version was released in 2006 but the final version was released on April 30, 2007.
Apollo
Adobe’s new language Apollo is focused more on the developer and will include a development kit and runtime application which will allow developers to build programs that can run on different operating systems. Apollo applications can be run without an internet browser or connection.
