JFX and the “Consumer JRE”
Between releases 1.0 and 1.1 of the Music Pinboard application, we succeeded in reducing the application’s footprint significantly. As we described in the overview that footprint is now around 5.1MB, which includes the Java FX (JFX) Runtime and a hefty (2.8MB) blob of an XML API called JAXB, which we could potentially replace with something lighter, given a little bit of time for re-design.
Large as this may still seem, there is actually plenty of reason to assume that this figure could come down (without any re-design of the application) by using Sun’s Pack200 technology. Unfortunately, when we tried to use Pack200 we ran into bleeding edge syndrome in conjunction with Java Webstart described here.
But when it comes to consumer satisfaction, it is not typically application size which causes irritation, but the cumbersome, lumbering JRE itself. By now you have probably heard what Steve Jobs apparently said of Java on mobile devices:
“Java’s not worth building in [to the phone]. Nobody uses Java anymore. It’s this big heavyweight ball and chain.”
Given the ubiquity of Java on mobile devices today (estimated at around 4 billion JREs) this statement seems pretty harsh. And true to his word the iPhone does not come delivered with a JRE and nor is it likely to in future. It also has to be said that even some of Java’s most fervent supporters agree the JRE contains too much machinery by default, much of which never gets to be executed in the average application.
For many attendees of JavaOne 2007, one of the biggest and brightest announcement concerned “Consumer JRE”. Consumer JRE seeks to address the Java end-user’s points of pain directly i.e.
- Startup times: Consumer JRE introduces functionality called Quickstarter, which according to Sun should “radically” reduce application and applet startup times.
- JRE install and launch times: The Java Kernel project seeks to break up the monolithic Java platform into discrete units of functionality. These then get downloaded and installed according specific application needs. the remainder of the platform is then streamed down to the consumer’s device in the background.
- Deployment: Also part of Consumer JRE, a Deployment Toolkit should make it easier to detect and install a prerequisite JRE.
- User-friendliness: Startup pop-up windows containing licensing information are to be re-designed to (hopefully) look a little less like a legal writ.
You can read more about these and yet more positive sounding developments here. Release is currently set for an update to Java SE6 in early 2008.
So what does all this mean for JFX? Obviously as long as the promise of “radical” improvement turns out to be true, it can only be great news for a technology that itself seeks to enhance the end-user experience. For too long Sun has been relying on increasing bandwidth, more powerful devices on the patience of end-users. In the meantime many have already switched to leaner solutions, and in the case of arguably the biggest advance in the mobile phone experience in recent years, Java has been left out in the cold altogether.
See also:
Some Background Information about the “Music Pinboard” Application
