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When I use Java applets, they tend to be slow, don't integrate very well with the browser environment and often require a few click throughs ("No, I don't want to give this unsigned application free reign of my hard disk").

So, I'm curious.

Are these problems insurmountable? Are there Java applets out there which integrate well with the browser experience (in, for example, the way a well-designed Flash application does?) Can you point out any examples of really "nice" Java applets?

I'm asking this because I want to know if I should be taking a more serious look at Java-in-the-browser, or if Flash will remain dominant for the foreseeable future.

Edit: Unintentional flame bait has been removed. Sorry for any offence caused.

Nifle
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David Wolever
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  • http://java.sun.com/applets/other/TumblingDuke/ – skaffman Jul 08 '09 at 16:14
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    While the tone could be considered slightly offensive, it's a good question. Are java apps typically ugly because people aren't doing it right or is there something wrong with the library? – Spencer Ruport Jul 08 '09 at 16:44
  • The question is clearly a troll (a.k.a. "subjective and argumentative"). – Tom Hawtin - tackline Jul 08 '09 at 16:53
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    I was tempted to downvote the question or flag it for closing – but the asker's got a valid point! Much of the antipathy towards Java stems from the consistently ugly GUIs (not even limited to applets). A slightly better-worded question would be: *why* is the default styling of Java applets and other UI libraries so abysmally bad? – Konrad Rudolph Jul 08 '09 at 19:06
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    Thanks – I hadn't realized how, err, bias the question was. I hope the updates help. – David Wolever Jul 08 '09 at 19:09
  • See also http://stackoverflow.com/questions/580995/why-do-applets-have-such-a-low-adoption-level and a decent answer in http://stackoverflow.com/questions/580995/why-do-applets-have-such-a-low-adoption-level/598419#598419 – Pool Jul 09 '09 at 00:07
  • -1 for the title, +1 for the content; "Any examples of user friendly applets?" is a friendly title, much like "Do intelligent discussions exist in the US Senate" might be a *bit* biased. – Dean J Nov 27 '09 at 15:28
  • Although I'm preparing for a negative response to this... Runescape is probably worth mentioning. – Matthew H Mar 27 '10 at 18:06

13 Answers13

30

The Facebook asynchronous image uploader is a Java applet.

Update: Apparently not developed in house at Facebook. This seems to be the product.

Amendment: Now that the question has been updated to be a bit more concise, I thought I'd add more to this answer.

This kind of problem, a mass image uploader (in this case), is the kind perfectly solved by a Java applet. Why?

  1. It uses native UI elements, so users are not confused, or have to learn a new interface.
  2. It can save massive amounts of bandwidth and overhead, because image transformations, such as resizing and cropping, can take place on the client side, rather than the server.
  3. Write once, deploy everywhere (almost, sorta).
jason
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  • Beautiful? Are you using the same Facebook mass image uploader that I've never gotten to work? Maybe it's much improved since I gave up on it. – harpo Feb 27 '11 at 05:01
13

Visual Thesaurus is the coolest / best applet I know of.

Julien Chastang
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  • ah, that is really nice. And the "top bar" (for lack of a better name) integrates really well with the rest of the page. Thanks! – David Wolever Jul 08 '09 at 19:30
  • Shame that it is not free as I don't have so much of a need to pay for such a product, but it looks interesting... – Mario Ortegón Aug 01 '09 at 23:13
  • This is implemented in Javascript now, not Java. – Robin Green May 05 '12 at 15:30
  • @RobinGreen More accurately, it looks like they are migrating away from Java Applets and towards JavaScript for obvious reasons. But VisualThesaurus was definitely implemented as a Java Applet originally. – Julien Chastang May 07 '12 at 18:06
10

Check out PulpCore. A really awesome Java applet framework: http://www.interactivepulp.com/

Performance for it seems pretty amazing too if you check it out on bubblemark.com

LeeMobile
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5

Some of Ken Perlin's applets are beautiful.

see http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/

eg:

Pierre
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5

Simple floor plan designing with java applet here. Works much faster than dragonfly.autodesk.com or floorplanner.com (both are flash applications).

MarcinLe
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4

A few things...

Some game sites, like popcap.com, use Java applets for their games, and they look pretty good and are very usable.

As far as "why is that button cropped?" - that's probably a layout manager issue. See my article on layout managers, in particular:

http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/GUI/AWTLayoutMgr/shortcourse.html#whyNeed

Scott Stanchfield
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4

There are many nice looking applets created with Processing (which is basically Java with some fancy graphics libraries included).

Just take a look at this visualization.

Telekom image 4b
(source: zumkuckuck.com)

Glorfindel
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  • Thumbs up for Processing; a lot of the Chrome demos are written in it as well. – Carl Nov 27 '09 at 15:28
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    I think the Chrome demos you're thinking of are in Processing.js Processing.js is a port of the 2D context from Processing. Processing can output applets. Processing.js runs in a Javascript interpreter. – slim Nov 27 '09 at 15:39
  • technically, if the input and output are similar or the same, then they're both Processing. Processing the program outputs Processing as Java, Processing.js outputs Processing as JavaScript. In any case, Processing is awesome heh. –  Nov 28 '09 at 23:08
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    It certainly is beautiful, and Java, but is it an applet? – Ollie Glass Jun 19 '10 at 13:41
3

In high school I used to play a ton of Yahoo Games and I'm pretty sure those are all java applets. It looks like Yahoo have updated their site since I went there last but you can still find all of the old games here.

theycallmemorty
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3

The MMORPG Runescape uses a Java applet as a client, and works very nicely, although the graphics aren't nearly as good as other games of the type I've seen. Jagex, the publishers, also have a game site called Funorb.

David Thornley
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3

Another game which is in Java (though not an applet) is Puzzle Pirates. It's not exactly beautiful but it's cute and it's very addictive. Also, it's very speedy and smooth (which has been a knock against Java applets).

seth
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  • Ah, you are correct. Somehow I missed that in the original question. Thanks for pointing that out. I've updated my response. – seth Jul 08 '09 at 18:54
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Java applets are like flash scripts - They can be used for good, but are often used for evil (e.g., annoying banners). IMHO the main reason that they didn't catch on is that they require tended to require too much skill and used AWT/Swing which produces worse UIs than what a designer with little programming skills could achieve with flash.

I would say that yes, they still exist, but more for business goals that don't require pretty UIs. For example, A lot of web-based statistics calculation tools are based on nice applets.

Uri
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1

It's certainly possible. Java2D (the standard graphics component in Java) is capable of rendering beautiful stuff. A big problem is that the default Swing Look and Feel is ugly. I believe Java 7 will have a better one, but there are also very beautiful third party ones such as Substance. I've personally developed a small Java applet game which, apart from the jagged text in the intro screen (which is a bitmap, not rendered text) is visually indistinguishable from a Flash game.

Bart van Heukelom
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1

My mom is addicted to the casual gaming at pogo.com, and I've gotta say, they've done an amazing job at fun, easy to learn, nontraditional games that look perfect. I'd love to see their code, honestly.

Dean J
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