Schildt H. - Introducing JavaFX 8 Programming

Best-selling author Herbert Schildt has written extensively about programming for three decades and is a leading authority on the Java language. His books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been translated into all major foreign languages. He is the author of numerous books on Java, including Java: The Complete Reference, Java: A Beginners Guide, Herb Schildts Java Programming Cookbook, and Swing: A Beginners Guide. He has also written extensively about C, C++, and C#. Although interested in all facets of computing, his primary focus is computer languages. Schildt holds both graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Illinois. He can be reached at his consulting office at (217) 5864683. His website is www.HerbSchildt.com.

Gerrit Grunwald is a software engineer with more than ten years of experience in software development. He has been involved in Java desktop application and controls development. Gerrit is interested in Java-driven embedded technologies based on JavaSE and JavaME. He is a true believer in open source and has participated in popular projects like JFXtras.org as well as his own projects (Enzo, SteelSeries Swing, and SteelSeries Canvas). Gerrit is an active member of the Java community, where he founded and leads the Java User Group Mnster (Germany), co-leads the JavaFX and IoT community, and is a JavaOne Rock Star and Java Champion. He is a speaker at conferences and user groups internationally and writes for several magazines.

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S ince its original 1.0 release, Java has been an innovative force that has driven both the art and science of programming forward. Although it has now been several years since that initial release, Java remains vibrant and alive, constituting what is arguably the worlds most important computer language. One reason for Javas long-term success has been its ability to adapt to the many and varied changes that have occurred in the realm of computing. As you will see in the course of this book, JavaFX 8 carries forward this rich legacy of innovation.

JavaFX is Javas next-generation graphical user interface (GUI) framework. Not only does JavaFX provide a rich, powerful, flexible framework, it is also easy to use. Thus, if you have programmed in one of Javas previous GUI frameworks, such as Swing, you will be pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to create a GUI with JavaFX. Perhaps more importantly, JavaFX gives you features that let you add the visual sparkle that is so crucial to the success of modern applications. In short, JavaFX represents the future of GUI programming in Java. It is truly that important. The goal of this book is to present in a fast-paced manner, the fundamentals of JavaFX programming.

At the time of this writing, the latest version of JavaFX is JavaFX 8. JavaFX 8 was released with JDK 8, and this is the version of JavaFX described in this book. Therefore, as a general rule, when the term JavaFX is used in this book, it refers to JavaFX 8.