Eclipse Community Forums: e(fx)clipse » Ready for production?

Help

Home

Home » Eclipse Projects » e(fx)clipse » Ready for production?

Show: Today's Messages :: Show Polls :: Message Navigator

Ready for production? [message #1220731]

Fri, 13 December 2013 10:16

Thorsten Seitz

Messages: 6
Registered: December 2013

Junior Member

Is e(fx)clipse ready for production?

Judging from the 0.9.x version number, probably not yet, but I'd still be interested in the opinion of people with some experience in using e(fx)clipse.

How would you contrast it with using SWT+FXCanvas instead?

Is there any timeframe to get production ready?

Thanks!

Thorsten

Report message to a moderator

Re: Ready for production? [message #1220742 is a reply to message #1220731]

Fri, 13 December 2013 11:05

Thomas Schindl

Messages: 6651
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

On 13.12.13 11:16, Thorsten Seitz wrote:
> Is e(fx)clipse ready for production?
>
> Judging from the 0.9.x version number, probably not yet, but I'd still
> be interested in the opinion of people with some experience in using
> e(fx)clipse.
>

I'd let this up to others because naturally I'm slighly biased. All I'd
say that if you consider, then by all means go with FX8!

Just one word on version numbers at Eclipse.org. They are not for
marketing but more on API stability. Without having had enough customers
for the API - and hell we have a lot of API - I'm uncertain to set that
in stone, I really want to break people as less as possible.

So while I'm very confident that our API is well designed before going
1.0 we need at least have every documented and things who are consider
SPI marked appropriately.

Java8 will probably help a bit in this area but it will allow us to
evolve interfaces.

> How would you contrast it with using SWT+FXCanvas instead?
>

It depends on the type of application. E.g. if your applications is a
diagram drawing app which does not show many native controls anyways
then yes it is.

If you are displaying a lot of forms, ... the L&F breakage is IMHO
unacceptable and you'd stay away from using FXCanvas who has its own
problems (e.g. no gesture-support)

> Is there any timeframe to get production ready?
>

I know there are people using it in production - or at least are
developing applications who should go into production in the months to
come but there as well it depends on what features you need - the
features that are implemented are stable and known to work very well.

If you qualify production ready with features like e.g. DnD and MinMax
support from the SWT version then no we are not.

Our current plan is to release 1.0.0 in the Luna time frame (0.9.0 is
due in the next few weeks - for reasons why this was not the case yet
please read [1]).

If 0.9.x releases needed to address problems are not yet scheduled and
depend on the community requests. Most likely we'll fix them first in
1.0.0 master stream and then backport them needed on request.

Finally our company BestSolution.at is providing professional services
like dedicated bugfixing, ... . Just get in touch with us.

Tom

[1]http://tomsondev.bestsolution.at/2013/10/09/wheres-efxclipse-0-9-0/

Report message to a moderator

Re: Ready for production? [message #1220984 is a reply to message #1220742]

Mon, 16 December 2013 13:47

Thomas Schindl

Messages: 6651
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

FYI:
https://www.eclipsecon.org/na2014/session/modernize-your-real-world-application-e4-and-javafx

Tom

On 13.12.13 12:05, Tom Schindl wrote:
> On 13.12.13 11:16, Thorsten Seitz wrote:
>> Is e(fx)clipse ready for production?
>>
>> Judging from the 0.9.x version number, probably not yet, but I'd still
>> be interested in the opinion of people with some experience in using
>> e(fx)clipse.
>>
>
> I'd let this up to others because naturally I'm slighly biased. All I'd
> say that if you consider, then by all means go with FX8!
>
> Just one word on version numbers at Eclipse.org. They are not for
> marketing but more on API stability. Without having had enough customers
> for the API - and hell we have a lot of API - I'm uncertain to set that
> in stone, I really want to break people as less as possible.
>
> So while I'm very confident that our API is well designed before going
> 1.0 we need at least have every documented and things who are consider
> SPI marked appropriately.
>
> Java8 will probably help a bit in this area but it will allow us to
> evolve interfaces.
>
>> How would you contrast it with using SWT+FXCanvas instead?
>>
>
> It depends on the type of application. E.g. if your applications is a
> diagram drawing app which does not show many native controls anyways
> then yes it is.
>
> If you are displaying a lot of forms, ... the L&F breakage is IMHO
> unacceptable and you'd stay away from using FXCanvas who has its own
> problems (e.g. no gesture-support)
>
>> Is there any timeframe to get production ready?
>>
>
> I know there are people using it in production - or at least are
> developing applications who should go into production in the months to
> come but there as well it depends on what features you need - the
> features that are implemented are stable and known to work very well.
>
> If you qualify production ready with features like e.g. DnD and MinMax
> support from the SWT version then no we are not.
>
> Our current plan is to release 1.0.0 in the Luna time frame (0.9.0 is
> due in the next few weeks - for reasons why this was not the case yet
> please read [1]).
>
> If 0.9.x releases needed to address problems are not yet scheduled and
> depend on the community requests. Most likely we'll fix them first in
> 1.0.0 master stream and then backport them needed on request.
>
> Finally our company BestSolution.at is providing professional services
> like dedicated bugfixing, ... . Just get in touch with us.
>
> Tom
>
> [1]http://tomsondev.bestsolution.at/2013/10/09/wheres-efxclipse-0-9-0/
>

Report message to a moderator

Re: Ready for production? [message #1220994 is a reply to message #1220984]

Mon, 16 December 2013 14:58

Thorsten Seitz

Messages: 6
Registered: December 2013

Junior Member

Tom,

thanks for your feedback!

> if you consider, then by all means go with FX8!

What do you mean with FX8?

> and hell we have a lot of API

Smile

Actually the amount of API and code is what has made me cautious to go with e(fx)clipse.

> FXCanvas has its own problems (e.g. no gesture-support)

Thanks, will have to look into that.

Java 8 is no option (because not released yet).

Thorsten

Report message to a moderator

Re: Ready for production? [message #1221003 is a reply to message #1220994]

Mon, 16 December 2013 15:59

Thomas Schindl

Messages: 6651
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

On 16.12.13 15:58, Thorsten Seitz wrote:
> Tom,
>
> thanks for your feedback!
>
>
>> if you consider, then by all means go with FX8!
>
> What do you mean with FX8?
>

I meant JavaFX8

>
>> and hell we have a lot of API
>
> :)
> Actually the amount of API and code is what has made me cautious to go
> with e(fx)clipse.
>

You need to separate between:
a) IDE code
b) runtime code

Compared to the functionality the amount of code is ok I think, I also
think from a code point of view we are production ready but our docs are
not.

>
>> FXCanvas has its own problems (e.g. no gesture-support)
>
> Thanks, will have to look into that.
>
>
> Java 8 is no option (because not released yet).

Well I don't know your timeline and naturally we currently also support
JavaFX2 but you get fairly no bugfixes for FX2 from Oracle because
everything concentrates on Java8/JavaFX8 which is released in March (eg.
read this FXCanvas disussion[1]).

Tom

[1]https://javafx-jira.kenai.com/browse/RT-33258

Report message to a moderator

Re: Ready for production? [message #1221668 is a reply to message #1220731]

Wed, 18 December 2013 07:50

Uwe San

Messages: 119
Registered: January 2012

Senior Member

Hi Thorsten,

FYI, we are developing an enterprise application based on e(fx)clipse and JavaFX 2.x. From our point of view, e(fx)clipse is stable and mature enough for production. We have so far made very good experiences with the features Tom mentioned earlier and, in addition to that, the support has been excellent. Whenever we had a problem, Tom and his team provided an answer in the forum or a bugfix usually within a day, often within minutes.

As for you, the JavaFX 8 beta versions have not been in consideration for us, but we are going to switch to Java(FX) 8 after the official release in March.

Cheers,
Uwe

Report message to a moderator