Open source JavaFX coming for iOS and Android

As part of the company's efforts to provide JavaFX as open source software, Oracle now wants to release the JavaFX ports for iOS and Android as open source. JavaFX is Oracle's framework for developing cross-platform rich internet applications (RIAs). JavaFX is also destined in the future to take over from the Swing GUI library within standard Java as the default method to program graphical user interfaces.

According to Oracle's Richard Bair, the "first bits and pieces" for JavaFX for iOS should be out in the next week. The rest is scheduled to come at the same time as prism. Prism is one of the seven projects still to be released through the Oracle process; most of the code is expected to be open sourced in the next two weeks with the remainder coming in one to two months. The only element that would then be left as closed source would be javafx-font and the developers are working with the OpenJFX list to make an open source native operating system replacement for this component. Bair says the company has also prioritised fixing the build/test system to more rapidly accept contributions and fixes.

The iOS and Android ports are both based on an "as-yet unreleased version of JavaSE Embedded for iOS/Android". There's no date for the release of this port. According to Bair, there have been questions about licensing on iOS since "Apple doesn't allow for GPL licensed applications in their app store"; he says the current belief is that the OpenJFX and OpenJDK code should be able to be bundled with application code and the bundle released under the developer's own licence.

(djwm)