Much progress has been made since the announcement of a new programming language called Visage. A Google Code website has been set up, and already there is a reasonable number of members (working on the compiler, tooling, or both). Overall reception to Visage has been highly positive with no shortage of volunteers, which makes the Visage community tick. Visage has certainly made a splash in the Java Lobby headlines with being one of the most popular links (with different articles) for about 2 weeks now. Having the creator of JavaFX Script (Chris Oliver) on board is a big bonus, which will help to keep the quality of the language (including the compiler) high.
Already in a short space of time the first preview of the Visage compiler has been released. In this release default properties are introduced, and cascading properties may also be included as well. Annotation and generics support is planned for a future Visage version. Although the first preview doesn't provide much it is one of many important steps towards creating a programming language that will revolutionise front-end development, especially mobile development in making it more accessible to a wide range of software developers.
Currently development is under way on Visage for Android, which should mean there is a release sometime next month that people can try out. Steve Chin is hosting a workshop on developing Android applications using Visage during Devox 2010 on the 17th of November. Speaking of Visage and Android I haven't heard any response so far from my key contact in regard to the Visage proposal for Google. There are talks underway on developing Visage for iOS (iPhone and iPad).
On the tooling side a development team has already been assembled to develop the NB plugin for Visage, and is currently using the NB plugin for JavaFX Script as a base. With development underway on Visage for Android I will be attempting to have a partnership established between the Visage community (on the NB plugin side) and the NB Android plugin community.
Visage has already made a considerable impact, which I think will evolve into a key technology to watch out for in 2011. Certainly if you are looking for a programming language to develop front-end applications then Visage should be investigated next year. With Visage growing at a fast rate which major company will support Visage first?
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