Do beautiful, user-friendly Java applets exist?

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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

Answer 3

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).

Answer 4

Hopefully they will with JavaFX.

Answer 5

I'm interested in alife, and generally not a java fan, but I like this java applet which implements the Wator predator/prey model.

Answer 6

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.

Answer 7

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).

Answer 8

they rename java applets to JavaFx ... but i don't know whether it will success or will su*k like applets :)

for me ... loading applets is not fun at all ... you see java words with loading animation. while in flash, while you waiting loading the swf you can play games (just stupid funny games) :)

I wish JavaFx could be useful, I like the new syntax .. like one in css .. simple and elegant and also easier to learn :)

Answer 9

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

Answer 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

Answer 11

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.

Answer 12

Some of Ken Perlin's applets are beautiful.

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

eg:

• http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/experiments/unicycle/
• http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/homepage2006/simplex%5Fnoise/index.html
• http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/experiments/orange/
• (...)

Answer 13

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.

Answer 14

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.

Answer 15

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