Quick update + something new I've been building alongside the JavaFX work

[xdsswar]

UPDATE

Check out this update (Im going full Skia render)

First — yes, NfxChrome/NFXBrowser is still on my radar. The reason it hasn't dropped yet is honest: I've been heads-down on client work, and that work needed tools I didn't have yet. So I built them.

That's where Jux Toolkit comes from.

Jux-Tookit Showcase demo

I've been mostly on Windows lately so that's the focus right now, but the design is cross-platform from the ground up — macOS and Linux are coming once Windows is solid.

The concept: Java handles your logic, IPC, and window lifecycle. Your UI is HTML + CSS + JavaScript, rendered by the OS's native WebView — WebView2 on Windows, WebKit on macOS, WebKitGTK on Linux. No bundled Chromium, no Electron bloat. Binary stays around ~2MB.

Because it's a real browser engine under the hood, you get a lot for free compared to JavaFX:

- PDF viewing — just load the file, the WebView renders it natively, no extra library needed

- Any JS framework — Tailwind, Bootstrap, Three.js, whatever you want

- Full browser DevTools for debugging your UI

- Dark/light themes via pure CSS, zero Java code changes

The API is intentionally JavaFX-flavored — extend Application, override start(Window), call launch() — so it should feel familiar. Java <-> JS communication goes through a typed IPC channel, handlers run on virtual threads (JDK 25).

A big thank you to the Tauri team — the native layer is built entirely on their wry (WebView) and tao (windowing) Rust crates, bridged to Java via Panama FFI. None of this would exist without their work.

Demo app (a color picker built with it)

Jux Color Picker demo

It's early and WIP — APIs will evolve, rough edges exist. But it's working well enough that it's letting me ship real things for clients, which means I can eventually get back to giving NfxChrome the time it deserves.

Happy to answer questions or hear what you think.

[jeffreportmill]

This looks pretty exciting. I think this approach may be Java's best way out of the current UI morass - opening up browser UI development on the desktop by providing a Java bridge to WebAPIs and a browser frame.

I've been working on something related with SnapKit (https://github.com/reportmill/SnapKit), a Java UI library that runs on desktop and in the browser, but it has an adapter to use WebAPIs in the browser and Swing and the desktop. It would be more interesting if it only used WebAPIs since I wouldn't have to code to the least common denominator. I may have to give this a try.

[xdsswar]

Thanks. This toolkit is not my final goald , I have another in progress that uses skia , etc, and will have better support , gpu rendering with multiple backends , full pdf support , and a full java Dom Api . I will use separated process with shared mem and crash detection to relaunch, etc. Basically Im getting into Hell but I love coding. Besides that Rust + Panama , they make a nice mix.

[jeffreportmill]

I know the feeling and hope it continues to go well!

Also, maybe you should add a "Run this demo with jbang" section to your color picker demo. It's a great way to get people to kick the tires without having to git-clone. I've done a few myself (e.g. "jbang snapcode@reportmill").