//from the editor /

he previous (and Premiere) issue of Java Magazine published synchronously with the on-time general availability of Java SE 7. Our timing for this issue is almost as good, as production wrapped up just a couple of weeks after the conclusion of JavaOne 2011, in San Francisco, California.

If you were unable to attend, you’ve probably heard that JavaOne was exciting for a number of reasons, many of which you will read about in this issue. But if I had to choose the most notable theme, it would be the re-energized, reinvigorated, and resurgent JavaFX platform.

JavaFX 2.0, now generally available for Windows (and in Developer Preview mode for Mac OS X), allows you to write apps in plain old Java using standard development tools—unlike 1.0, which required knowledge of a custom scripting language. Furthermore, at JavaOne, Oracle announced its intention to fully open source the platform via the OpenJDK Project, and pursue its standardization via the Java Community Process. (Read all about these developments, and more, in our JavaFX coverage in this issue.) Looks like Java developers working client-side will finally get their next-generation successor to Swing.

There’s more to the story though. At JavaOne, we also got the updated roadmaps for Java SE 8, Java EE 7, and Java ME. We got word of the JDK 7 for Mac OS X Developer Preview. And we were reminded that Java developers “code hard in their cubicles.” Yes, it was quite a show.

So what’s next? Well, we need to get you ready for Java EE 7 (scheduled for release in 2012), which will provide a genuinely standard runtime for cloud-based apps.