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JavaFX Goes Mobile

Today sees the release of JavaFX 1.1, allowing developers to put their JavaFX RIA applications on mobile phones, as well as the desktop. I talked with a few of the folks at Sun, including Param Singh, Senior Director of JavaFX at Sun, John Burkey, JavaFX Architect and Mandini Romani, who runs the JavaFX platform.

In this article I'll go through what's included in this release, as well as ask find out a little more about the things in JavaFX that I've wondered about - mostly the integration between Swing, or SWT, and JavaFX.

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You Should Never Use Flags For Language Choice

Flags Are Not Appropriate For a Language Choice

Many people think it is pretty cute these days to use a flag for a language choice when they are sending over a quick message to work colleagues or to a friend or family member. Many people look at it as a simple short-hand that helps them avoid having to spell out the entire word for whichever language they are referring to. 

On top of that, they often see it as a way to add a little fun to the message that they are trying to send. You might wonder what could possibly be so bad about that. However, it is a bad choice to use a flag for a language. 

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How to Render Your Website

A little history

Back in the days, rendering a website was simple. You needed a web server that served HTML files. Those were static sites. Then developers started using databases and authentication. To achieve that, they needed to manipulate the HTML file before serving it. That's how server-side rendering was born. Let's fast forward until 2010, when Backbone got released. The front-end got richer and more complex. Then the era of client-side applications begin. Developers migrated their data and routing logic to the client side. They could, because Google "understood" JavaScript. The servers became slimmer, but the websites became more complex. Yet, recently server-side rendering became a trend again. All thanks to React and its server-side hydration feature.

Static sites

Static sites are the simplest way to render a website. You code your website in HTML/CSS, and serve those files from a web server. This is the simplest way to render your website, but it comes with pros and cons.

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Client-Side v/s Server-Side Rendering: What to Choose When?

The Web Page Rendering Dilemma

The discussion about a web page rendering has come to light only in recent years. Earlier, the websites and web applications had a common strategy to follow. They prepared HTML content to be sent to the browsers at the server-side; this content was then rendered as HTML with CSS styling in the browser.

JavaScript frameworks came in with a completely different approach to web development. JavaScript frameworks brought in the possibility of shedding burden off the server.