Eclipse 3.4 - New and Noteworthy in SWT

Milestone M1


SWT for 64-bit Windows Windows x86_64/AMD64 has joined the lineup of supported configurations for which SWT and Eclipse are routinely built. To use it you must be running on a 64-bit edition of Windows with a 64-bit JRE. (Note that the 32-bit versions of SWT and Eclipse can still be used on these configurations with a 32-bit JRE).

Eclipse on Windows 64


Milestone M2


SWT RTL support for Linux GTK SWT now provides support for mirroring on Linux GTK platforms.

RTL on Linux GTK


SWT inline input method StyledText has added support for inline input method in Win32, GTK, and Carbon.

Inline input method


SWT features in TextLayout and StyledText TextLayout and StyledText now allow different strikeout colors, underline colors, and different underline styles.

SWT Underline


SWT full screen state API was added to put a Shell into a full screen state. Full screen should be used rather than creating an ON_TOP shell the size of the screen, which may not obscure the task bar or other desktop adornments under certain operating systems.

Fullscreen


Milestone M3


SWT on HP-UX IA64 SWT will now run (in 32-bit mode) on HP-UX Itanium machines.

HPUX


Alpha on shells There is new SWT API that allows the setting of an alpha value on a shell. Note: some operating systems do not support this functionality.

alpha


Image transfer support New API was added to support copy and paste of an image to and from the clipboard.

Milestone M4


Accessibility for Mac OS X Eclipse is now accessible on Mac OS X Carbon. The Mac screen reader, VoiceOver, can be turned on and off with Command+F5. The snapshot below shows the VoiceOver cursor highlighting a tool item in Eclipse.

VoiceOver showing focus on Eclipse tool item


URL transfer support There is new Drag and Drop API to support the conversion between text in URL format and a platform-specific representation of the data.

URL transfer before

URL transfer after

For further details, see Snippet 284.

Create a region from a path There is new API to flatten a graphics path into line segments. Line segments can be used to create a region, which is used for non-rectangular shells. This snippet creates a circular shell from a path.

Region from Path


OpenGL support on Solaris OpenGL support has been added on the Solaris-GTK and Solaris-Motif platforms.

Solaris OpenGL


Proxy settings on Mozilla-based Browsers Mozilla-based Browsers now support access to the web through a proxy. This can be set by specifying the network.proxy_host and network.proxy_port java properties at startup.

For more info see How do I set a proxy for the Browser to use?

Milestone M5


Regions on controls You can now set a Region into a Control, which allows for the creation of non-rectangular controls. This example snippet created the snapshot shown below.

Region on Control


Tristate buttons API was added to allow for tristate check buttons similar to the check buttons in a table or tree. This example snippet created the snapshot shown below.

Tristate button


Draw control to GC API was added to allow the drawing of any Control to a GC. For more info, check out Snippet 292.

Print a Control


Browser now uses XULRunner 1.9 interfaces The Browser widget has been updated to work with the upcoming XULRunner 1.9 release (which is compatible with older XULRunner versions). This affects all Browser instances on Linux, as well as Windows and OSX Browser instances created with style SWT.MOZILLA.

xulrunner19


Drag and drop improvements on Mac When inserting an item into a tree, an indicator is now displayed to show where the item will end up.

Mac tree insert


SWT for Windows 64-bit Itanium Edition Windows IA64 has joined the lineup of supported configurations for which SWT is routinely built. To use it you must be running on Windows 64-bit Itanium Edition with a 64-bit JRE.

Milestone M6


Shear transform SWT has new API that allows for shearing of images. For more info, check out SWT Snippet 298.

Shear Transform


File overwrite prompt The SWT FileDialog now optionally prompts the user to confirm when a file will be overwritten. This allows the user to stay within the dialog when choosing a file to save.

File Overwrite


RowLayout center alignment New API was added to SWT RowLayout to allow for the centering of controls. For more info, check out SWT Snippet 299.

Row Layout center


Cocoa improvements Work on the Mac Cocoa port of SWT is still in the early stages, but some important improvements have been made:
  • Menu bar support
  • Command Q support
  • Advanced graphics improvements
  • Checkbox in Tables and Trees
  • Key events
  • Tab traversal

Thanks to the community for contributing patches, bug reports and testing.

SWT on Cocoa


Progress bar (Vista) The SWT ProgressBar control now supports the native Windows Vista styles.

Progress Bar Vista

Milestone M7


No scrollbars The style bit NO_SCROLL was added on all platforms to prevent scrollbars in tables and trees. This is useful if you know that a certain table or tree is a fixed size and will never contain enough elements to warrant scrollbars. For more info, check out SWT snippet 301.

No Scroll