JavaFX, Flex and not default languages.

Question

Can I write programs in JavaFx or Flex with other languages (not ActionScript and JavaFX Script) like in Silverlight?

Answer 1

For flex you can only do MXML and Actionscript although there's an option to compile C/C++ code using Alchemy

Answer 2

JavaFX can call Java and thus can call any code that generates Java classes. So you could in theory write code using JRuby or Groovy.

However, I would suggest that is not really how you could should JavaFx (or Flex). Rather you are really using these languages to build great UI using technologies that should be more reliable than AJAX/browser nightmares.

And that their real power comes when you are able to integrate them with back-end data sources (via REST/SOAP) that can be written in whatever language you want.

Answer 3

The question would be easier to answer if we understood why you would want to do this?

For JavaFX the answer is both yes and no, depending on what it is you want to achieve. JavaFX compiles to Java classes and in theory you can call the compiled JavaFX classes from any JVM language that can call Java classes. However, this isn't as simple as it sounds because some of the stunts they are pulling to implement the JavaFX language features make the implemented classes quite complex and the name mangling is not defined and subject to change. Any solution written this way would be very fragile.

However, much of the JavaFX functionality is based on pure Java libraries such as JMC (Java Media Components) for the media support and the scenegraph project (https://scenegraph.dev.java.net/) for the 2D scenegraph. These projects are written in Java and are much easier to call from Java and other JVM based languages.

I don't have any experience of Flex but as far as I know, you are stuck with MXML and ActionScript.