Introducing JavaFX 8 Programming

by Herbert Schildt

Introducing JavaFX 8 Programming provides a fast-paced, practical introduction to JavaFX, Java’s next-generation GUI programming framework. In this easy-to-read guide, best-selling author Herb Schildt presents the key topics and concepts you’ll need to start developing modern, dynamic JavaFX GUI applications. The book begins with the fundamentals, including the general form of a JavaFX program. You then advance to event handling, controls, images, fonts, layouts, effects, transforms, animations (including 3-D animations), menus, and more. Numerous complete examples are included that put key topics and techniques into action. Designed for Java programmers, the book’s focus is on the JavaFX API and all examples are written entirely in Java. Best of all, the book is written in the clear, crisp, uncompromising style that has made Herb Schildt the choice of millions worldwide.

280 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 2015

About the author

Best-selling author Herbert Schildt has written extensively about the Java, C++, C, and C# programming languages. His books have sold millions of copies worldwide and have been widely translated. Herb's books have been used in education, corporate training, and individual study.
Although he is interested in all facets of computing, Herb's primary focus is computer languages, especially the standardization of languages. He was a member of the original ANSI committee that standardized the C language in 1989, and he was a member of the ANSI/ISO committee that updated that standard in 1999. He was a member of the original ANSI/ISO committee that standardized C++ in 1998 and he was a member of the ANSI/ISO committee that updated the standard for C++ in 2011.

Herb holds both graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign.

Reviews

[blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a six-year-old book (and almost immediately obsoleted by JavaFX 9), but it's the best of the JavaFX books I've read. If you've read any of my similar tech reviews, I have a problem with books that just take the API and work out the most basic examples without going into any depth. They do this because the publishers' have a belief that people scan the index or TOC looking for particular topics and don't buy the book if those topics aren't in there. This may even be true, but the result is a bunch of books that don't cover anything well.

Early on, especially, there is some genuine depth. There are two chapters on controls, for example, and, yeah, they don't cover everything but they do cover a few things quite well, to where you might be able to figure out the other things. There is generally a philosophy to the way libraries like these are built, and it's more important to learn the philosophy—which you can't get from trivial examples—than it is to learn any specific feature.

That said, it does lapse into the trivial in places, especially after the controls chapter. The last chapter of the book covers the charts, the webview and drawing to the canvas, for example. Three large and unrelated subjects shoved into one chapter.

I have to say, though, even at its most trivial, at least there is some effort to do something more than just slapping one of these features in. The webview, for instance, at least shows an example of using the history. I've yet to encounter a single example anywhere of using the canvas for anything, except maybe for games. These are the sort of things you could leave out and put in more substance elsewhere.

[Lime Street Labrador · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice intro to key components such as layouts, controls, menu, and event handlers. No shape drawing shits.

[Mihai · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's far from a full reference - I suppose the hint was in the title.