Subscriber Reviews

Average Rating:  Based on 2 Ratings

"Average" - by Fender56 on 20-MAY-2013
Reviewer Rating:
One of the frustrations I have with this book is while it tells the reader what the various classes and methods do, it doesn't tell us when or why we would want to use them.  

From Chapter 3: "You can register InvalidationListener objects to
an Observable object to receive invalidation events."

OK, great.  When might I need such a listener?  When is it more appropriate to use a ChangeListener?  What use case would be better suited to one over the other?

Chapter 5 deals with using JavaFX UI controls.  It spends at least ten pages instructing the reader how to click on the various controls included in the example code once compiled.  This passes for "instruction".  I think we're all pretty well versed on how to *react* to a user interface.  What I was looking for was how it works underneath the hood - how to build, when to use one type of component over another, how to dynamically build a ChoiceBox data model, etc.

I realize that the reader is expected to bring certain knowledge to the table when embarking upon a new learning experience.  But this book feels more like a lecture than an interactive learning endeavour.  Perhaps I haven't brought my share to the table.  OK that's fair enough.  

Typically, for me anyway, it takes several books on a given technology to get the whole picture.  There's always some little tidbit of information one book has that the others have left out.
But given that this book the only one I can find that deals with JavaFX 2.0,  I'm left to fend for myself through Google searches and tutorials.

One of the things that this book doesn't do is spend a lot of time going over history.  Too many java books do that: they want to tell us the entire history of Java and waste our time in doing so.   This book, thankfully, is sparse on history - just enough to tell me why I'm seeing most of the reference material talking about scripting and xml that doesn't seem to be true any more.  (The answer of course is that most of the material I've found deals with JavaFX 1.0,  while JavaFX 2.0 is quite a bit different).

And maybe that's at the heart of the matter here.  JavaFX 2.0 is still in it's early stages so there isn't yet enough experience in the java-scape for authors to learn from each other and improve on each other's work.


Report as Inappropriate

"Chapter 1 is good, but Objects are jumbled " - by MikeekiM on 25-JUN-2012
Reviewer Rating:
Source should be cleaner, for teaching.

A Better Example 1:


package profx_helloearthrise;

import java.util.Calendar;
import java.util.GregorianCalendar;
import javafx.animation.*;
import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.geometry.VPos;
import javafx.scene.Group;
import javafx.scene.GroupBuilder;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.SceneBuilder;
import javafx.scene.image.Image;
import javafx.scene.image.ImageView;
import javafx.scene.image.ImageViewBuilder;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.shape.Rectangle;
import javafx.scene.shape.RectangleBuilder;
import javafx.scene.text.*;
import javafx.stage.Stage;
import javafx.util.Duration;

/**
*
* @author x
*/
public class ProFX_HelloEarthRise
extends Application
{

/**
  * @param args the command line arguments
  */
public static void main( String[] args )
{
  launch( args );
}


@Override
public void start( Stage primaryStage )
{
  GregorianCalendar gcNow = new GregorianCalendar();
  int currentYear = gcNow.get( Calendar.YEAR );

  // Month is Zero based, subtract 1.
  GregorianCalendar gc1968 = new GregorianCalendar( 1968, 12 - 1, 25 );
  int landingYear = gc1968.get( Calendar.YEAR );

  int yearsPast = currentYear - landingYear;
  String sYearsPast = Integer.toString( yearsPast );


  String message = "Earthrise at Christmas: "
   + "Some years ago [ " + sYearsPast
   + " ] this Christmas, a turbulent world "
   + "looked to the heavens for a unique view of our home "
   + "planet.  This photo of Earthrise over the lunar horizon "
   + "was taken by Apollo 8 crew in December 1968, showing "
   + "Earth for the first time as it appears from deep space.  "
   + "Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders "
   + "had become the first humans to leave Earth orbit, "
   + "entering lunar orbit on Christmas Eve.  "
   + "In a historic live broadcast that night, the crew took turns "
   + "reading from the book of Genesis, closing with a holiday wish "
   + "from Commander Borman: "
   + "\"We close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, "
   + "and God bless all of you -- all of you on the good Earth.\""
   ;

  // Text Earth Properties
  Text textEarth =  TextBuilder.create()
    .layoutY( 100 )
    .textOrigin( VPos.TOP )
    .textAlignment( TextAlignment.JUSTIFY )
    .wrappingWidth( 400 )
    .text( message )
    .fill( Color.rgb ( 187, 195, 107 ))
    .font( Font.font( "SansSerif", FontWeight.BOLD, 24 ))
    .build();

  TranslateTransition transTransition =  TranslateTransitionBuilder.create()
   .duration( new Duration( 75000 ))
   .node( textEarth )
   .toY( -820 )
   .interpolator( Interpolator.LINEAR )
   .cycleCount( Timeline.INDEFINITE )
   .build();

  ImageView viewEarth = ImageViewBuilder.create()
   .image( new Image( "http://projavafx.com/images/earthrise.jpg" ))
   .build();

  Rectangle rectEarth = RectangleBuilder.create()
   .width( 430 )
   .height( 85 )
   .build();

  Group groupEarthText = GroupBuilder.create()
   .layoutX( 50 )
   .layoutY( 180 )
   .children( textEarth )
   .clip( rectEarth )
   .build();

  Group groupEarth
   = GroupBuilder.create()
   .children( viewEarth, groupEarthText )
   .build();

     Scene scene  = SceneBuilder.create()
    .width(516)
   .height(387)
   .root( groupEarth )
   .build();

    primaryStage.setScene( scene );
  primaryStage.setTitle( "Hello Earthrise. ");
  primaryStage.show();

  transTransition.play();

}  // end start()

} // end class

Report as Inappropriate