Sun, Audio-player and Sound I/O

I have a few questions related to Sun, Audio-player and Sound Input/Output

Why is the sun.audio.AudioPlayer package not part of the Java API? Some info is here instead: http://grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/root/jdk/openjdk/6b14/sun/audio/AudioPlayer.java Yet it is still part of the default JDK build I am using.

I have tried using JMF and spent half the day screw balling around with it, to no real avail. I managed to import the jmf.jar into Eclipse I tried a demo script and it still spat out errors like nobody business. Considering its abandoned now?!? Java does however provide a link for a relatively new version: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/download-142937.html I am a little concerned however how at the bottom of the page the following is written "false,,,,,,,"?

Whats the best package to use for audio I/O and manipulation in your opinion?

I just want to work on a project and I though an MP3 player would be a nice place to start as I can do a little swing. However it seems to be rather difficult as from what I have read Java is not really very keen on making mp3 and audio manipulation packages.

sun.audio is undocumented

Like other sun.* packages, it is undocumented and it might disappear.

Java Media Framework is old

It's an optional package, not part of the SE and hasn't been updated in a long time. Oracle has a page on it and it's still available but, well, who knows what will happen to it.

javax.sound is part of the SE

This is the current Java sound implementation, it is part of the SE and the tutorial for it can be found here. If you want to use audio in Java this is what you should learn because it's official, it works, it gets updated sometimes and it is well-documented.

javax.sound does not play mp3

Why is that? Despite being ubiquitous in file systems, mp3 has a history of licensing and patent issues. Mp3 is a minefield and this may be why Sun/Oracle has not put effort in to supporting it. (If this is why, I don't blame them.)

If you really want to play mp3 there are some third-party decoders floating around on the web. There is no point in recommending one because all of them will read mp3.

JavaFX does play mp3

Use a javafx.scene.media.MediaPlayer. See javafx.scene.media/Supported Media Types. JavaFX is part of the JRE/JDK as of Java 8 (and new versions of Java 7) and will (probably) eventually supersede several SE APIs like javax.sound and javax.swing.