Sun’s recent introduction of JavaFX has created quite a stir in the Java community. There has been a flurry of activity on the new mailing lists and forums, but the wiki for the project on java.net is strangely static.

As it turns out, even though the source code for JavaFX is open, the official documentation is still closely guarded. The JavaFX wiki on java.net has been disabled for the public.

There are good reasons for doing this when a project has just begun, but it hampers the efforts of early adopters to share information with each other. Mailing lists and forums are good, but “point in time” information is rarely as accurate and as complete as wiki information, which can have ongoing review and revision.

This chafes me. Open source projects should have open documentation at some level.

I have proposed that the JavaFX community use a off-site public wiki called “Planet JFX” that wouldn’t be subject to official Sun Microsystems documentation control. This would ideally become a fast-growing repository of early adopter knowledge

The tips, tricks, and gotchas flowing through the mailing lists could be captured into a really good knowledge base that would benefit everybody. It would also be an important resource for people who are using JavaFX but aren’t on the mailing lists.

Planet JFX would be a free instance of Wikimedia provided by wikia.com. (Wikia will provide the hosting if enough people lobby for it.) If you agree that open documentation is an important resource for open source platforms like JavaFX , drop by and add your support.

Update:  http://jfx.wikia.com is now live!