Am I the only one fed up with Swing?

eantoranz · 04-28-2005, 08:38 AM

What widgets libraries are usable to replace swing? I'm sick and tired of trying to figure out how to make something look the way I want it to under Swing. :@

ahwkong · 04-28-2005, 09:35 AM

Eclipse and swt

moeminhtun · 04-29-2005, 12:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by eantoranz
What widgets libraries are usable to replace swing? I'm sick and tired of trying to figure out how to make something look the way I want it to under Swing. :@

You are talking about 'look and feel' or the programming model?

eantoranz · 04-29-2005, 12:15 AM

Programming model. I think Swing is too painful to "play" with.

mrcheeks · 04-29-2005, 01:22 AM

you can download ebooks or buy books. Once you understand swing, it is easy maybe not such as visual basic...java itself is simple compared to C++ or C.

eantoranz · 04-29-2005, 08:20 AM

I know, I know... But I just don't find myself confortable programming Swing.

I think there might be other "toolkits" available. GTK or other stuff.

eantoranz · 04-29-2005, 08:21 AM

I certainly don't want to get to the extreme of having to work with JNI to use other toolkits.

jlliagre · 04-29-2005, 09:26 AM

Picking native toolkits, SWT is one, breaks portability, one main java objective.
Java application should run on all supported JVMs without the need of extra, O/S and CPU dependant, libraries (dlls).
You'd better think again, and not give up on Swing with which many developers are confortable.

csfalcon · 04-29-2005, 10:24 AM

try the VE plugin for eclipse, it has a swing GUI builder, it's been a time saver for me.

http://www.eclipse.org/vep/

eantoranz · 04-29-2005, 10:52 AM

OK... I'll give it a try.

I'm trying to install the VE plugin. I downloaded the zips for ve, gef and emf. But when I try to add the "local sites" and add the features, it says:

Code:

Requested operation cannot be performed because it would invalidate the current configuration. See details for more information.
  WTP Common Utilities (1.0.1) does not have a valid license agreement.
  WTP EMF Integration Core (1.0.1.2) does not have a valid license agreement.

Any suggestions?

prell · 04-29-2005, 11:53 AM

I don't know if you have the means, but on OS X, the developer tools fully support Java. So you could, for instance, start a Java-Cocoa project in Xcode, and design the interface (and the Controller-UI interactions and outlets) visually in Interface Builder. Apart from the obvious advange of designing a UI visually by hand, another advantage of this is that Interface Builder can constrain you to Apple's Human Interface Guidelines (HIG), which dictate, for example, how far widgets can be from other widgets. So, Interface Builder will "snap" widgets on forms, as you place them. The results are forms and widgets that appear harmonious to other windows the user has open.

And, as an aside: in Xcode 2.0 (which comes with OS X 10.4 "Tiger"), Ant builds are supported. Many other Java enhancements have also been added in Tiger and Xcode 2.0.

csfalcon · 04-29-2005, 01:29 PM

you just need to unzip the zip files and put them in eclipse folder (the plugins are already in the correct directory structure). after you restart eclipse, you can create a new class by going to: new -> other... -> java -> visual class.

eantoranz · 04-29-2005, 08:25 PM

Is it possible to do it keeping them in a different directory? Let's suppose I have eclipse under /usr/ (where I do have it).

eantoranz · 04-29-2005, 08:26 PM

...and don't want to mess with the original directory.

I want to work on the files in my home.