This post isn't about LWUIT, its about Java on the desktop and its current direction. Microsoft just introduced Windows 8, for those of you who haven't been following here is the gist:
Run's on Arm (as well as Intel obviously), Completely new touch/gesture based UI, less emphasis on Windows.
Apple also introduced Tiger (next Mac OS X), which also focuses more on full screen applications as well as eliminates the scrollbar... Mac OS X will now scroll like the iPhone and hide the scrollbar when it isn't used.
Rumors are also abundant about Apple's laptop line moving to Arm chips which they can easily do since they have a fat binary .app directory structure (which MS doesn't have).
To me these things signal a massive UI convergence trend where the mobile UI takes the lead. Up until now mobile UI's were influenced by desktop paradigms and now we finally see the reverse coming on in full force.
Where does this leave Java developers?
Swing hasn't been moving forward for quite a while now & Java FX isn't even in production and already it seems behind the curve on these sort of features. I'd love to say that LWUIT can take over but right now we still don't have many of the features necessary to write full scale desktop apps...
However, I would say that this is a great time to be a mobile developer since an upheaval is on its way and it seems that we are leading the pack.
This sort of convergence also means a huge migration to the cloud, when using multiple mobile devices its just impossible to sync them in any other way. Even those reluctant about privacy and security would probably shift to the cloud to remain competitive.
Good!
ReplyDeleteI think this issue is resolved in SVN. We completely changed the way text input works on blackberry, all fields in blackberry devices will now be native fields.
ReplyDeletehttp://java.net/projects/lwuit/sources/svn/show/trunk
ReplyDeleteIn the latest SVN we only use native input for RIM devices. Perl and other "weird" RIM devices send all sorts of keycodes that give no indication of what the user is actually trying to write.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1.4 release we recommended only using text area with RIM devices since it was the only way to guarantee native input back then.
The 1.4 binary will *not* be updated.
ReplyDelete1.5 is delayed due to bureaucratic constraints outside of our control.
Hi Shai thanks for the reply can you tell me when can I checkout the 1.5 ver of lwuit as I need to implement it for project on bb os 7.0
ReplyDeleteThanks
You can build from source right now.
ReplyDeleteA binary release will be announced when we are allowed to announce it which can be anytime between now and 2013.
Hi Shai
ReplyDeleteCan you help me on how to handle the issue on screen width and screen height for bb os 7.0, the problem now I face is only that in BB Models like 9900 and 9930.
Thanks
What issue of screen width/height?
ReplyDeleteWe will release LWUIT 1.5 in the second week of August according to current predictions.
I'd love to say that LWUIT can take over but right now we still don't have many of the features necessary to write full scale desktop apps..."
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's time for LWUIT to also converge to the desktop.
What features are missing ? Maybe the community can help.
Mostly the esoteric kind that just doesn't make sense for LWUIT. E.g. Swing tables are far more elaborate than ours, desktop menus are something completely different, pointer events include multiple properties like meta keys/right/center button & wheel. The list goes on.
ReplyDeleteAdding these isn't too hard but it will add size & clutter that doesn't make sense for LWUIT.