Despite the fact that it went all ass-wonky on my laptop, forcing me to buy a mini, I am reinvested into JavaFX.

Like most thinks Java (oh yes, it is Java) JavaFX does have a protective membrane preventing people who don't know what they are doing (or who don't RTFM) from using it. Once you break through, though, there is a termendous amount of UI and linguistic power behind the platform.

I recently up'd to NetBeans 6.7 and briefly lost the ability to work in JavaFX; the 6.7.1 upgrade returns JavaFX to usability -- and I actually think that may be one of the few reasons for that particluar release... but now that I have it running, it truly rocks.

There is a lot of modern concepts in the JavaFX language -- mixins, labelled property construction, a really nice array system and more. I expect to have something useful in a few weeks using this amazing platform -- thanks to Corey for turning me on to it.

... and re-rejected

After investing a sick amount of effort to learn JavaFX and actually accomplishing a fair amount, I found JavaFX running memory spikes and lags all over the place. I couldn't even reproduce what I'd accomplished in Processing, a far more humble platform, with out busting the cap on JavaFX's memory. All I was doing was generating terrain tiles (see above) and trying to make them scrollable (a la Google maps) and BOOM! instant memory blowouts.

I was similarly unimpressed by some online demos of their physics engine -- just a few balls bouncing in the frame seems to cause the animation engine to go all Jerky. Compare this with the Unity engine that allows full blown 3D apps on the desktop AND the iPhone. There is simply no comparison.

Like all things Java, the syntax and IDE is actually a great little fantasy world, but actually deploying useful products with it requires a fantastic amount of memory management and caching hacks. what is the point of developing a simple UI for visual apps if you're not going to do your homework in optimizing the engine to perform under real world conditions? Thank you Sun for giving me enough rope to hang myself. I guess its back to Flash/flex for me.