JavaFX squares off against AJAX

In a mock debate focused on the rich Internet application development realm, AJAX was pitted against Sun Microsystems' JavaFX Friday, with proponents for both technologies pointing up their entrant's high points and the low points of their rival.

A session at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco had the co-founders of the Ajaxian Web site for AJAX technologies squaring off, with Ben Galbraith playing the part of the JavaFX advocate and Dion Almaer serving as AJAX's proponent. Both serve as co-directors of developer tools at Mozilla. While Galbraith and Almaer are obviously geared toward AJAX, Galbraith said he also has experience consulting on Java.

"JavaFX is built on top of an incredibly mature runtime that gives you amazing performance," as well great features, and [Oracle CEO] Larry Ellison, Galbraith said, giving a humorous nod to Oracle's plans to buy Java founder Sun Microsystems.

[ For more info on rich Internet application platforms, check out "Not your father's Web: The year in RIAs" | Also check out other news from JavaOne. ]

Almaer focused on AJAX being synonymous with the Web. "It's all Web stuff that's going on," he said.

The two went back and forth, measuring factors such as graphics performance, language capabilities, and tools.

"Today's JavaScript runtimes are just pitiful," Galbraith said, and the Web is slow, he added. Java also has a more sophisticated API, he argued. But Almaer countered, "We have a very simple API. I consider that a feature."

Almaer also advocated the performance of the Google Chrome browser, prompting Galbraith to ask how many people actually use Chrome.

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