Eclipse 3.2 - New and Noteworthy in SWT

Milestone M1

Download: M1 Build (August 11, 2005)

Build Notes: M1 Build Notes

Sort Indicator in Table and Tree

Table and Tree now support a sort direction indicator in the header of the column.

See the following SWT snippets for examples of sorting by column (simple) and sorting by column (virtual table).


Reorderable columns in Tree

In Eclipse 3.1, we added the ability to reorder columns in a Table and now that support has been added to Tree.

The display order of columns in a tree can be changed by dragging the column header or can be set programmatically.

For more details see the example snippet.


Improved XP Theme Support

On Windows XP, SWT now shows the textured background in tab folders. The groups, labels, check boxes, etc. are all transparent to this background. Also, custom widgets, such as StyledText, now show the correct border for the prevailing Windows XP theme.

See the SWT FAQ for instructions on how to run with a Windows XP skin.

Milestone M2

Download: M2 Build (September 23, 2005)

Build Notes: M2 Build Notes

Dispose notification

Previously, when a SWT.Dispose event was received for a parent composite, all the children were disposed and therefore could not be referenced. For 3.2, the Dispose event is received before the children have been released in the OS.


Desktop appearance notification

When the appearance settings such as theme, font, or default colours are changed for the desktop, an SWT.Settings event is issued for the Display.


Animated GIFs

Animated GIF images can be saved to file.

For an example see the SWT snippet.


Tooltips for Columns

Tooltip text can be set on a table or tree column header using TableColumn/TreeColumn.setTooltipText(String).

Vertical CoolBar

A vertical coolbar can be created by using the SWT.VERTICAL style.


Nathalie

Congratulations to Silenio and Rose.

Milestone M3

Download: M3 Build (November 2, 2005)

Build Notes: M3 Build Notes

OpenGL support

You can now use OpenGL in SWT applications. The OpenGL interface works with third-party OpenGL libraries such as LWJGL.

For examples, see the SWT snippets


Virtual Tree

Tree now supports the SWT.VIRTUAL style. This allows you to create trees with large amounts of data quickly. When TreeItems are needed, they are created on-demand.

For an example see the SWT snippet.


Buttons with image and text

Buttons can now show an image as well as text. This feature is supported on Windows XP, Mac OS X, and GTK.


HIView on Mac OS X

SWT now makes use of HIView on Mac OS X. This resolves many clipping and sizing issues.


Embedding objects in text

Using TextLayout, it is now possible to embed objects such as images or widgets inside text. Glyph metrics such as ascent, descent and width can be specified. Objects wrap with the text.

For an example see the SWT snippet.


Indent, align and justify text

TextLayout now supports indenting, justifying and aligning text.

For an example see the SWT snippet.


Text Baseline Rise

Using TextLayout and TextStyle, it is now possible to specify the baseline rise for a range of text.

For an example see the SWT snippet.


Alea

Congratulations to Grant and Andrea.

Milestone M4

Download: M4 Build (December 15, 2005)

Build Notes: M4 Build Notes

Hue, Saturation, Brightness

A color can be created by specifying the hue, saturation and brightness. In addition, for a given color, the hue saturation and brightness can be queried.

For an example, see the SWT snippet


StyledText Alignment, Indentation, Justification

StyledText now supports indenting, justifying and aligning text.

For an example, see the SWT snippet


Embedded Objects in StyledText

StyledText now allows you to embed objects such as images or widgets inside the text. Objects wrap with the text.

For an example, see the SWT snippet


Background Image

A background image can be set into a control. In addition, the background can be inherited by child widgets such as labels.

For an example, see the SWT snippet


Native Image Loading

The constructor Image(Device device, String filename) will now load images using native Operating System calls. This has improved performance of image loading and increased the maximum size of image that can be loaded.


Dragging Text

If the SWT.DragDetect event is hooked on Text or StyledText, the selection will not be cleared when the user drags from within a selected range of text. This makes it possible to support dragging from the Text and StyledText widgets.

For an example, see the SWT snippet

Milestone M5

Download: M5 Build (February 17, 2006)

Build Notes: M5 Build Notes

New ExpandBar Widget

The ExpandBar widget allows the user to show and hide collections of widgets by clicking on a header. The ExpandBar contains multiple items that can each have an image and title in the header.

For an example, see the SWT snippet


Bullets in StyledText

StyledText can now show lists formatted in a variety of styles such as numbered, upper case or lower case letters, bullets or a custom defined style.

For an example, see the SWT snippet


Mac OS X on X86/Intel

The eclipse launcher and SWT libraries have been compiled as universal binaries so that you can run Eclipse on Mac OS X X86/Intel platforms using the Mac OS X (Mac/Carbon) downloads.

Milestone M6

Download: M6 Build (March 31, 2006)

Build Notes: M6 Build Notes

Custom Draw Tree

The Tree widget now supports custom draw for individual cells. Applications can enhance the native look and feel of the tree by custom rendering of the data. The application has control over row height so multiple lines of text can be drawn. In addition, the user can present multiple images in the same cell, change font or color multiple times and change the way selection is drawn.

For examples, see the following snippets:


Custom Draw Table

The Table widget now supports custom draw for individual cells. While still maintianing the native look and feel of the table, users can customize how cells are drawn to display data in a form other than text with an image, to show multiple lines of text in one cell, to change font and color multiple times within the same cell, to override the native selection drawing etc.

For examples, see the following snippets:


Drag over effects for Table and Tree

The Table and Tree widgets now provide visual feedback of what is being dragged.