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Michael Schmidt wrote:
<blockquote cite="midBAY101-DAV13F5B87CA73553F1B32BD4A3840(at)phx(dot)gbl"
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<div>Mr. Armbrust,</div>
<div>Hopefully, this isn't off topic. Just wondering why SWT instead
of swing?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Michael Schmidt</div>
</blockquote>
<tt>I'm pretty sure this is completely off topic, but I'll indulge it -
<br>
<br>
I've done development using Swing and SWT - and I find SWT's APIs to be
much cleaner, intuitive, and easy to use. Manual GUI development is
much quicker with SWT and results in much less code that is far more
readable. Also, SWT layout managers are _much_ easier to use than the
crud that comes with Swing from Sun.<br>
<br>
Side note - if you do have to do Swing development, I highly recommend
using the JGoodies forms package - it is a layout manager for Swing </tt>that
is far and away better than trying to do things with Swing layout
managers - <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/forms/index.html">http://www.jgoodies.com/freeware/forms/index.html</a><br>
As an example, I rewrote some forms that were 800 lines of code using
GridBagLayout into about 150 lines of code using JGoodies. And the
JGoodies code is far more readable.<br>
<br>
Back to SWT - Swing still just looks like crud when compared
side-by-side with native Windows applications. Especially in windows
XP - Sun still doesn't have the Windows XP Look and Feel implemented
properly. And if a user applies a custom XP skin, then it really looks
strange. The file choosers don't look or work like native Windows XP
file choosers. And when windows "super duper 5.0" comes out next
year, I'm sure it will only take sun another 3 years or so to write the
new look and Feel. Meanwhile, your apps just look weird. SWT Apps
_always_ look exactly like the OS look and feel - because it uses the
native OS widgets. You can also embed Swing parts into a SWT
application if you need to.<br>
<br>
When I write a SWT application, most of my users don't even know it is
a java application. It just looks like a normal "windows"
application. You can also launch SWT apps using Java WebStart, or, if
you don't want to use webstart, you combine your app, SWT, and
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://jsmooth.sourceforge.net/">http://jsmooth.sourceforge.net/</a> and suddenly you have a native windows
executable for your users. All of javas ugly bits are safely hidden
away from your end user.<br>
<br>
If you want to compare a Swing application (written using JGoodies
looks and JGoodies look and feel - which does a better job than Suns
look and feel at looking like Windows XP) side by side with a similar
SWT application - take a look at these two apps:<br>
<br>
(scroll down to the webstart links)<br>
(ps - these apps aren't supposed to be masterpieces of user interface
design - they are just utilities for techie types using LexGrid)<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://informatics.mayo.edu/LexGrid/index.php?page=convert">http://informatics.mayo.edu/LexGrid/index.php?page=convert</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://informatics.mayo.edu/LexGrid/index.php?page=indexer">http://informatics.mayo.edu/LexGrid/index.php?page=indexer</a><br>
<br>
Especially pay attention to the speed and appearance of the file
choosers (click the "Browse..". button) - to enable the second file
chooser in the Indexer Creator app - go to the "Options" menu and
choose "Build Normalized Index"<br>
<br>
Another awesome gui that is written in SWT (and most end users don't
even know its written in Java)<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://azureus.sourceforge.net/">http://azureus.sourceforge.net/</a><br>
<br>
And a couple more - to finish with a little bit of relevance to
PostgreSQL<br>
A database designer plugin for Eclipse (which is all written in SWT)
- supports PostgreSQL:<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.azzurri.jp/en/software/clay/index.jsp">http://www.azzurri.jp/en/software/clay/index.jsp</a><br>
<br>
Another database plugin for Eclipse that lets you work with a
PostgreSQL database.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://quantum.sourceforge.net/screen_shots.html">http://quantum.sourceforge.net/screen_shots.html</a> <br>
<br>
Dan<br>
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****************************
Daniel Armbrust
Biomedical Informatics
Mayo Clinic Rochester
daniel.armbrust(at)mayo.edu
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://informatics.mayo.edu/">http://informatics.mayo.edu/</a>
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