groovy and javafx

[roger schildmeijer]

I've just started reading about javafx and I wonder if groovy and javafx share the same domain regarding where these techniques are applicable?

[Dierk König]

JavaFX as I see it is a domain specific language for Java2D.

Groovy is an all-purpose language, which happens to excel even in the niche that JavaFX aims for. See for example the Griffon module http://groovy.codehaus.org/Griffon .

cheers
Dierk

[Marc Peabody]

The biggest difference between JavaFX and Groovy is that Groovy actually works.

There are a lot of similarities. Groovy, though, is more of a general purpose language like Java. JavaFX is specific to UIs.

If you really want to compare the two, you should consider playing around with the SwingBuilder in Groovy.

One thing I really don't like about JavaFX is that there are a lot of non-Java-y syntax things that take some getting used to. You can, however, start writing Groovy classes right away even if you only know Java syntax. That's a huge win for Groovy.

A year ago I remember reading about people asking Chris Oliver why JavaFX wasn't just built on top of Groovy. The basic answer was that when JavaFX was started (originally called F3 I think), Groovy didn't allow some of the primary features he wanted... dynamic binding being the biggie.

[tom scott]

i hope this doesn't go too far off the thread but i can't resist a comment and question that includes groovy, javafx, javascript and ajax.

first, from what i've seen now that javafx had its FCS (last week i think), there is still a lot to be done with it. i think eventually it'll compete well with flex and silverlight. how long it'll take to be competitive, maybe someone else can say.

second, can some of us folks who use javascript and ajax, and who have minimal skills in java (a lot of us unfortunates still have nightmares about trying to learn swing!), hope that someday it'll be possible to integrate groovy and javafx into our javascript and ajax apps or vice-versa? i don't have the time or skill to be a good java developer but i'd like to use something like netbeans to drag-n-drop some groovy and javafx code into my ajax apps. is that somewhere over the horizon or is it too much like trying to mix oil and water?