I have created a survey on improving the development and support for the Visage language. If you can help out with completing the survey that would be highly appreciated. The more results that can be collected from the survey the more complete the picture will be on improving Visage. Please get as many people as you can involved with completing the survey.
Showing posts with label Visage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Visage. Show all posts
05 June 2011
15 January 2011
Visage Roadmap
Based on what information I could gather from the discussions, Visage Issue DB, blog posts a clear enough picture has emerged on which to create a roadmap for Visage. Do note that the roadmap below is subject to change, some guesses have been made, and may not be entirely accurate.
Visage 1.0 (Beta 1) – 20 February?
Visage 1.0 (Beta 2) – 20 April?
Visage 1.0 (Stable) – 20 June?
Post Visage 1.0
JavaFX 2 support will likely be delayed as much as possible to allow time to properly support the platform. Hopefully JavaFX 2 will be ready in time for its beta release. Some of the mentioned points may appear in earlier or later Visage releases. Main themes for Visage 1.0 is support for multiple development platforms (currently Android and JavaFX), enhanced property support, stronger platform API support, and additional data types.
Visage 1.0 (Beta 1) – 20 February?
- Android 2 (eg 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3) and JavaFX 1 (eg 1.3) support
- Default properties
- Angle data type
- Length data type (covering screen metrics, and metric measuring system)
- Colour data type
Visage 1.0 (Beta 2) – 20 April?
- Required properties
- General built-in locale system for strings (locale lookup via fxproperties files)
- Cascading properties
- Map data type
- Updated Android 2 library
Visage 1.0 (Stable) – 20 June?
- Annotations support
- Generics support
- JavaFX 2 support
- Basic tooling for Visage (eg programmer's text editor)
Post Visage 1.0
- Basic built-in lookup system using cascading properties?
- RTS (Reusable Type System)
- Declarative functions
- Add a more open license (BSD type one)
- Application controller?
JavaFX 2 support will likely be delayed as much as possible to allow time to properly support the platform. Hopefully JavaFX 2 will be ready in time for its beta release. Some of the mentioned points may appear in earlier or later Visage releases. Main themes for Visage 1.0 is support for multiple development platforms (currently Android and JavaFX), enhanced property support, stronger platform API support, and additional data types.
16 December 2010
Android Support With Visage
Visage has achieved what no other language has done (except Java) with supporting Android without the need for wrapper APIs/libraries and a separate runtime. Most languages that run on Android require the use of ASE (Android Scripting Environment). ASE provides very limited support for the Android APIs, and worse acts as a wrapper which greatly limits performance, and heavily restricts what languages have access to in terms of Android functionality.
Already there is excitement with Visage supporting Android directly like Java without the need for extra baggage. One downside is that the Visage compiler has to do two compiles, one from Visage source code to Java byte code, and the other from Java byte code to Dalvik byte code. This means that performance is not going to be adequate for advanced Android applications, but simple applications will run okay. In time performance will improve as further tweaks are made to the compiler until it gets to the point where there is only a single compile (from Visage source code to Dalvik byte code). When that time comes Visage will have performance comparable to Java.
Another downside is that Visage does not support Android APIs that make use of generics. In time the situation will be rectified since generics support in Visage is top priority. Hence it will be about a month or two before the support appears. As such it will not be possible to create advanced Android applications for the moment. Some genericised APIs will have alternatives that can be used until the support is present.
Guessing from how much of the Android APIs will be supported by Visage based on the total classes/interfaces/enums it comes to roughly 84%, which is surprisingly high considering much of the Android API is genericised. With the proper support the total supported Android APIs would come to about 95-98%. At a very high percentage this would make Visage a very attractive alternative to Java for Android development. With that level of support very little functionality would be unavailable when it comes to developing Android applications.
It remains to be seen what Visage language features can be utilised on Android. Not all features will be available but that will change as the Android support improves. Currently Visage for Android has not be made publicly available yet. Expect a public release within the next few weeks or so.
Next year will be the year that Visage makes its mark on Android development. Finally a viable programming language is emerging for Android development, which goes far beyond creating hello world type applications.
Already there is excitement with Visage supporting Android directly like Java without the need for extra baggage. One downside is that the Visage compiler has to do two compiles, one from Visage source code to Java byte code, and the other from Java byte code to Dalvik byte code. This means that performance is not going to be adequate for advanced Android applications, but simple applications will run okay. In time performance will improve as further tweaks are made to the compiler until it gets to the point where there is only a single compile (from Visage source code to Dalvik byte code). When that time comes Visage will have performance comparable to Java.
Another downside is that Visage does not support Android APIs that make use of generics. In time the situation will be rectified since generics support in Visage is top priority. Hence it will be about a month or two before the support appears. As such it will not be possible to create advanced Android applications for the moment. Some genericised APIs will have alternatives that can be used until the support is present.
Guessing from how much of the Android APIs will be supported by Visage based on the total classes/interfaces/enums it comes to roughly 84%, which is surprisingly high considering much of the Android API is genericised. With the proper support the total supported Android APIs would come to about 95-98%. At a very high percentage this would make Visage a very attractive alternative to Java for Android development. With that level of support very little functionality would be unavailable when it comes to developing Android applications.
It remains to be seen what Visage language features can be utilised on Android. Not all features will be available but that will change as the Android support improves. Currently Visage for Android has not be made publicly available yet. Expect a public release within the next few weeks or so.
Next year will be the year that Visage makes its mark on Android development. Finally a viable programming language is emerging for Android development, which goes far beyond creating hello world type applications.
21 October 2010
Visage Moving Forward
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?
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?
01 October 2010
Visage - A Refreshing Change
With Oracle making the disappointing move to drop support for JavaFX Script, and leaving its users in the cold with no migration plans something had to be done to rectify the situation. At JavaOne Steve Chin announced plans for a new programming language called Visage. Visage is to be heavily based on JavaFX Script, but is designed to be portable to a number of different platforms. Any GUI toolkit can be used with the new language.
Like JavaFX Script Visage is to be strongly typed and allow front-end applications to be created easily and productively. Also a number of programming paradigms will be incorporated for front-end application development (Procedural, Object Orientated, Functional). Unlike JavaFX Script Visage is vendor neutral and community controlled. However partnerships will be established with other vendors to enable Visage to be ported to different platforms.
Many people and businesses that have made a considerable investment in JavaFX Script think that any investment made will be lost. With the creation of Visage one of its main priorities at the moment is to preserve the investment made by people and companies by providing a transition path. Plans are currently under way with Visage to help JavaFX Script users make the transition to the language. A migration process with JavaFX Script is not only very difficult but is unnecessary since the area of developing front-end applications is not properly handled by major programming languages.
One of the first discussions to appear after the creation of the Visage project is porting plans for some of the major mobile platforms (eg Android). This is a great idea for getting Visage off to a head start. I intend to release a proposal to Google within the next few days on establishing a partnership with the Visage team to port Visage to the Android platform, and to have Google involved in the development of the Visage language if possible.
Visage represents a fresh change that challenges the status quo. Why is there no programming language specifically designed to handle the creation of front-end applications (except for JavaFX Script)? How is it that mobile development has been made unnecessarily difficult for newcomers? Visage is the way to make mobile development more accessible to potential software developers, and to people getting started in mobile development for the first time.
If someone is getting started in programming then they should be able to start in mobile development, if they choose to do so. Unfortunately the reality is that they must start in a different area of software development since there are no viable options, unless one decides to get started in mobile web development instead. However getting involved in mobile web development is completely different from mobile development, which is not an ideal situation for a newcomer that wishes to get started in mobile development.
Currently Visage is in the design stage so anyone can contribute various ideas that might be good to incorporate for the language. Unfortunately my own proposals for Visage, which are in a presentation (an odp file) cannot be attached to this blog post. Hopefully I can submit the presentation to the Visage website.
Like JavaFX Script Visage is to be strongly typed and allow front-end applications to be created easily and productively. Also a number of programming paradigms will be incorporated for front-end application development (Procedural, Object Orientated, Functional). Unlike JavaFX Script Visage is vendor neutral and community controlled. However partnerships will be established with other vendors to enable Visage to be ported to different platforms.
Many people and businesses that have made a considerable investment in JavaFX Script think that any investment made will be lost. With the creation of Visage one of its main priorities at the moment is to preserve the investment made by people and companies by providing a transition path. Plans are currently under way with Visage to help JavaFX Script users make the transition to the language. A migration process with JavaFX Script is not only very difficult but is unnecessary since the area of developing front-end applications is not properly handled by major programming languages.
One of the first discussions to appear after the creation of the Visage project is porting plans for some of the major mobile platforms (eg Android). This is a great idea for getting Visage off to a head start. I intend to release a proposal to Google within the next few days on establishing a partnership with the Visage team to port Visage to the Android platform, and to have Google involved in the development of the Visage language if possible.
Visage represents a fresh change that challenges the status quo. Why is there no programming language specifically designed to handle the creation of front-end applications (except for JavaFX Script)? How is it that mobile development has been made unnecessarily difficult for newcomers? Visage is the way to make mobile development more accessible to potential software developers, and to people getting started in mobile development for the first time.
If someone is getting started in programming then they should be able to start in mobile development, if they choose to do so. Unfortunately the reality is that they must start in a different area of software development since there are no viable options, unless one decides to get started in mobile web development instead. However getting involved in mobile web development is completely different from mobile development, which is not an ideal situation for a newcomer that wishes to get started in mobile development.
Currently Visage is in the design stage so anyone can contribute various ideas that might be good to incorporate for the language. Unfortunately my own proposals for Visage, which are in a presentation (an odp file) cannot be attached to this blog post. Hopefully I can submit the presentation to the Visage website.
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