Apache Pivot 1.4 vs. JavaFX, Flex, Silverlight, Swing
I've recently heard about Apache Pivot being moved to the Top Level Projects category and I was wondering who has tried the most recent version and compared it to other RIA tools. What are the proper categories for comparison?
It seems to be easier to pick up for Java developers since JavaFX has a different scripting language. The Pivot developers say that Pivot is what Sun should have made instead of JavaFX.
Answer
I worked with Pivot and even been part of Pivot development. It is a nice little library, but...
It cannot replace Swing or JavaFX. The original authors are positioning it to compete with Adobe Flex. Because of that its concepts are more like applet than desktop application. It is almost impossible to create a modern desktop application simply because it has a concept of one main window and all the child windows are "inside" of it. I discussed this with authors but it looks like this is the way they want to go.
The library uses its own custom collections library which is sort of strange, but it isn't a show stopper.
Other then that the library is nice. But who is creating applets these days?