Move JavaFX to a separate library in the Contributions Manager

[processing-bot]

Created by: benfry

The size Processing 4 is massive (hundreds of megabytes) compared to Processing 3. The main problem is that the JavaFX library is enormous, so I'm probably gonna have to move it to a separate library that can be installed from the Contributions Manager. Not a great user experience, but better than everyone having to deal with such a massive download.

Unfortunately, it's not an easy decision, because it requires a lot more effort:

1. Extra code will be required to warn users to add import processing.javafx.* when they use the FX2D renderer, or to do that automatically behind the scenes
2. Tools that use JavaFX will no longer work – maybe they can once the JavaFX library is installed, but that'll be still more workarounds and hacking.
3. Building and maintaining JavaFX in a separate repository similar to processing-video is that much more work for me.

Java 17 is also quite a bit larger than Java 8, but we're just stuck with that. There isn't a good way to modularize a development environment—I can't/shouldn't be anticipating what modules people will need/want to use.

[processing-bot]

Created by: dzaima

An alternative would be to bundle JavaFX only for the required operating system. Currently a Processing download gives you JavaFX for all of Windows, Mac, and Linux, two thirds of which you won't need.

Would complicate cross-platform exporting, but that's already messy because of no included java runtime.

[processing-bot]

Created by: benfry

Nah, it's still an extra ~200 MB for just the one platform, and it makes cross-platform export a nightmare and at odds with the intent of Processing and the PDE in general.

Similarly, we could also drop the webkit portion to chop it in half, but again, it's just more caveats and headaches for the people who want to use that.

[processing-bot]

Created by: benfry

New repo here: https://github.com/processing/processing4-javafx

[processing-bot]

Created by: peter100u

Can the flutter framework be used to rewrite processing? As a cross platform, it is a very good scheme

[processing-bot]

Created by: dzaima

Flutter uses Skia as its rendering backend, which is the actual part that could be used in processing. And there's Skija that binds Skia to Java, usage of which was discussed here.

[processing-bot]

Created by: benfry

Folks, this is way off topic. Please use https://discourse.processing.org/ for general discussion. This is an issue about moving JavaFX to a separate library.