From the Apple Quicktime for Java list in June last year, titled Re: QTJava will be depreciated next year:

I don't think Apple is really worried about losing mindshare in the Java video playback front. Java 7 has already promised on2 video codec support so playback in Java is a non-issue. ffmpeg, FOBS, FMJ, etc... are useless when it comes to meaningful editing so the question of editing support is the only meaningful one worth asking.
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At this point, certainly, relying on Apple for Quicktime Java support would not be wise.


What's this on2 video codec we're talking about? I've been out of the hands-on loop long enough not to know about JavaFX. I can't say I completely understand what it's supposed to do (though JWebKit was supposed to follow it, and hasn't), but it appears to be QT4J's functional successor.

Downloading the JavaFX SDK Installer

Problem is, this would be a real bear to distribute, and the Mac sys reqs ain't exactly middlin'. Both make it less attractive than a well-supported QT4J (which we all know doesn't now exist, if it ever did).

Microsoft Windows:

* Processors: Intel Pentium 4, Intel Centrino, Intel Xeon, or Intel Core Duo (or compatible) 1.8 GHz minimum
* Operating systems: Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise (certified for 32-bit editions)
* Memory: 512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended)
* Disk space: 256 MB free disk space
* Web Browsers: Internet Explorer 6 minimum, FireFox 2.0 minimum
* Java SE Development Kit (JDK): JDK 6 Update 7 minimum (JDK 6 Update 13 recommended)
The JDK installation includes the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).
* Apple QuickTime Player: 7.5.5 minimum is required to run the JavaFX Mobile Emulator, which is currently available only on the Microsoft Windows platform. System restart is required after QuickTime installation.

Apple Macintosh:

* Processor: Dual-Core Intel, PowerPC G5
* Operating system: Macintosh OS X 10.4.10 minimum
* Memory: 512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended)
* Disk space: 256 MB of free disk space
* Web Browsers: Firefox 3.0 minimum, Safari 3 minimum
* Java SE Development Kit (JDK): JDK 5 Update 13 (version 1.5.0_13) minimum (Java for Mac OS X 10.4, Release 7 or Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 2 or later)
The JDK installation includes the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).


There's also some talk about how JavaFX is being pimped hand-in-hand with Netbeans, kinda like the essentially Netbeans-only VB-like GUI RAD I blogged about a long time ago and whose name I forget. I'm not quite sure I get the Netbeans infatuation. It's a nice dev environ, but I like Eclipse more. I'm still programming in Java, right?

So I'm not sure how much JavaFX is tied to Netbeans, as some conspiracy theorists trumpet, but I'm not completely sold that there's no proverbial synergy driving them either. I hate it when companies try to sell dancing moons and call them shovels (the tool du jour).

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