Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 4th Dec 2008 22:34 UTC, submitted by Stenley
Thread beginning with comment 339259
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.






Member since:
2005-07-06
Starting with the current version of the Java Runtime Environment (Update 10), the parts of the JRE that are needed for a given applet to run are downloaded on-demand. According to Sun, this results in an initial JRE download size of 4-5MB for the average applet. (in comparison to 14+MB to download the full JRE, which was previously the case)... This compares pretty well to Flash's 5.4MB download.
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/javase/java6u10/#ke...
Also, browser integration in Update 10 is much better. If I understand the release notes correctly, the Java plug-in can now be installed directly in-browser without a visit to Sun's site, just like it is for Flash.
http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/javase/java6u10/#pl...
As for comparison to Flex... Java has some pluses and minuses. On the definite plus side is power -- there are way more libraries out there written for Java than for Flex, and the Java Standard Edition API is incredibly rich. Java also has the nice ability to display widgets in the native operating system's look and feel if you like, which Flex can't do. On the downside, Flex has *way* better (more mature) UI-building tools. And of course Flash has *way* better design and animation tools. It will take quite a while for Sun to catch up on those (actually they may never catch up to Flash on the ease of use for designers).
However, when the design tools for JavaFX are released, they will be free. (as opposed to FlexBuilder)
Edited 2008-12-05 00:30 UTC