Author: Frank Delporte

Java Development with VS Code on the Raspberry Pi

Recently we published a full getting started guide for Java with VS Code together with a list of tips and plugins for Java development with Visual Studio Code.

But… did you know you can also use it on the ARM-processor-powered Raspberry Pi?

Until recently this was not available in an official version for the Raspberry Pi, but luckily Microsoft decided to release new versions with installers for both 32-bit and 64-bit Raspberry Pis.

Let’s install and test them!

Device Monitoring with JavaFX and FXGL

In a previous post, Getting Started with FXGL Game Development, we already have taken a look at the FXGL game development framework developed by Almas Baimagambetov.

But, this game engine can also be used for other use cases. In this post, we will be building a system monitoring dashboard, which can run on a Raspberry Pi.

The dashboard can be used to keep an eye on any device that can report its state to a queue. And, for me personally, it finally solves the problem of finding the IP addresses of all my Raspberry Pi’s when my router decided to shuffle them.

Java Predictions for 2021: Raspberry Pi

To celebrate the world of Java and predict some highlights for 2021, several key Foojay participants share their thoughts, starting with Frank Delporte, Foojay Community Manager for Raspberry Pi.

“Looking back to my Java adventures in 2020, I can only conclude it has been a wonderful journey.

By writing my book “Getting Started with Java on the Raspberry Pi” and blogging for Foojay, I discovered Java in the embedded world has a very bright future. With the 6-month release cycle of both Java and JavaFX, a lot of improvements and new features that impact the use of Java on Raspberry Pi, are introduced with every new version.”

Light Up your Christmas Tree with Java and Raspberry Pi

Are you a serious Java-developer looking for a fun project?

Or want to learn something completely new and use your Java-knowledge to control electronic components?

Here we go with this small project to get you introduced to the world of electronics programming!

Native Applications for Multiple Devices from a Single JavaFX Project with Gluon Mobile and GitHub Actions

The power of JavaFX combined with the Gluon tools and GitHub actions is amazing. Building and distributing a truly cross-platform application has never been easier!

Really not a single code change is needed to run on different platforms. As you can see from the build processed, the exact same code is used to create native applications for both Windows, Linux, MacOS, iOS, and Android!

Starting a JavaFX Project with Gluon Tools

Here on foojay.io you can already find two posts by Carl Dea to get you started with JavaFX.

In this post, I want to show you yet another approach that uses the tools provided by Gluon, who are the maintainers, and the driving force behind OpenJFX.

The Gluon start website and the plugin allow you to get started with a new JavaFX project in a few clicks.

Thanks to the amazing work done by the Gluon team this also gives you a quick-start for the creation of a mobile application which can be built for both Android and iOS.

Getting Started with FXGL Game Development

FXGL is a JavaFX Game Library Engine for Java and Kotlin, created by Almas Baimagambetov.

In this article, you’ll read what FXGL is, what it is good for, what its dependencies are, as well as a complete scenario with a video and code snippets to set up your first FXGL scenario from scratch.

OpenJDK vs. OpenJFX Release Cycles

Confused about the release cycles of OpenJDK and OpenJFX and the relationship between them? Read on to have all your questions answered.

At this moment, there are no planned features or changes in OpenJFX which require new JDK features (text blocks, records, etc), so the next releases of OpenJFX will most probably still be compatible with JDK 11.

JavaFX 3D: A Look Back Through History & Some Experiments

After my virtual conference talk “Java and JavaFX on the Raspberry Pi” at the “Oracle Groundbreakers APAC Virtual Tour 2020”, I got in touch with some people who were working on JavaFX 3D in the past, and were curious how that would behave on the Raspberry Pi.

JavaFX 3D really is a hidden gem! I’ve been using JavaFX already for a long time now but wasn’t aware of these 3D features… And the demos presented here really impressed me.

Building OpenJDK from GitHub Sources on 64-bit Raspberry Pi

The OpenJDK sources are now fully available and developed on GitHub as a result of Project Skara. Thanks to a lot of work done by the community, the full Java development flow has been migrated to GitHub while keeping the repository history. This process has been described on the GitHub blog.

This also means we are now able to build OpenJDK ourselves from the latest sources, very easily, on any device where we want to use the latest not-yet-released-version.

Faster & More Reliable 64-bit OS on Raspberry Pi 4 with USB Boot

A micro SD card is the default way to add an operating system to the Raspberry Pi. But there is an alternative approach that you need to consider if you want to make your system more reliable. SD cards are not super fast and can get quickly corrupted when you are writing a lot to disc.

Switching from SD to USB Boot is very easy if you have a Flash Drive which is supported and the read speed is a lot higher! Combined with the higher reliability, this makes the switch a go go go…