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[platform-swt-dev] A Builder for Eclipse
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Greetings,
Bongo, before Eclipse, was the first "widget" oriented GUI builder for Java.
My company, Open Doors Software, has lovingly guided this project to a product
status, now named Conga. Conga is a rich builder, scripting, and widget set
rolled into a single product for rapid skin development on a java desktop.
It uses only the graphics engine provided within the basic Java runtime. In
that sense, it is a cousin of SWT. It makes no use of Swing or AWT components.
Conga might have a contribution to make to SWT. Fundamentally, its secret
sauce is its builder which allows a graphics designer to visually lay out
a UI without code generation and according to a WYSIWIG layout pattern or
some other layout pattern. Conga's real asset is its Builder. Presentations
are loaded/saved as optimized, reuseable, persistent streams. Its widget set,
like SWT, is extensible.
I will spare you the details at this point as to why creating a Builder
for SWT would be a really difficult job for me and perhaps it is already
done or being done.
org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget
This class is not "Builder-Friendly" to my pattern for creating a Builder.
In other words, I need more builder-support in this base class.
So, my question is this: is o.e.s.w.Widget frozen? Can its method signatures,
interfaces implemented, and other behaviors be modified?
I would really like to see Eclipse succeed and to see Eclipse have a great
GUI builder. Perhaps there is one already ... but I did not see it.
regards,
Lane Sharman
http://opendoors.com