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Re: SWT History and Design Decisions (WAS: [platform-swt-dev] AWT Toolkit using SWT (was: From Swing to SWT))
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Bob Foster wrote:
So where's your GUI builder? (Or Scott's,
for that matter? ;-)
http://opendoors.com/conga
Download it for a free 30 trial. Also, be sure to read the link on the page
and in the distro, "A Guide to Using Conga with a Team of Graphic Artists
and Java Programmers". I believe Conga is completely production grade. Please
be sure to drop me a note with any issues offline. Really looking forward
to working with you.
I'm not seriously challenging that you
could make one. I just want to look at the GUI builder that results.
The issue isn't whether you can make a
GUI builder for SWT. You can make a GUI builder for any library...provided
that you don't have to "round trip" (convert source/object code into the
representation used internally by the GUI builder).
Conga does not generate/manage code. This is a failing of most GUI builders:
they generate reams of code which statically describe at design time the
UI. Conga's Builder manages property resource files. Code generation of a
UI is basically an evil practice which should be avoided given the dynamic
nature of a UI.
I know from previous discussion that Scott
thinks this is not a requirement. I also know that many commercial GUI builders
do allow round-tripping. Enough so that many would consider this a competitive
requirement.
Further, in my own apps, I routinely rewrite the property resource files
as easily as one would save a data file to preserve user interaction state
with the UI. Kinda hard to rewrite and compile a a java source tree in a
business app.
I am not trying to brag or anything. In fact, Arthur Van Hoff and his team
deserves all the credit because this was his baby some time back and he is
about an order of magnitude superior to me as a programmer. It is just that
Conga reflects some really outstanding design features and, at this critical
juncture in Java's story, we need some help on the desktop to compete with
Visual Studio.
Kindest,
Lane
Bob
-----
Original Message -----
Sent:
Friday, January 17, 2003 1:08 PM
Subject:
RE: SWT History and Design Decisions (WAS: [platform-swt-dev] AWT Toolkit
using SWT (was: From Swing to SWT))
It’s entirely
possible… it’s just that some designers make API, or at least paradigm
assumptions about the GUI library they design with, and sometimes those
assumptions are incompatible with an alternate GUI library. I’m not sure this is the case in the mentioned systems,
but it’s the only real impediment. Building a natively
SWT-aware builder is not particularly hard compared with another GUI
library.
Regards,
Christian.
-----Original
Message-----
From: platform-swt-dev-admin@xxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:platform-swt-dev-admin@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jan Venema
Sent: Friday, January
17, 2003 10:49 PM
To: platform-swt-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: SWT History
and Design Decisions (WAS: [platform-swt-dev] AWT Toolkit using SWT (was:
From Swing to SWT))
Can sombody
please explain to me why it is not possible to build a GUI designer in
SWT.
I've been following the discussions here, but I haven't realy heard an
answer. On the properties pattern thing. Does setData(String key, Object
value) solve your problem? And since SWT is native widgets How does Visual
Studio do it?
--
Lane Sharman
http://opendoors.com Conga, GoodTimes and Application Hosting Services
http://opendoors.com/lane.pdf BIO