[PJUG Javamail] How are Java UI frontend tools?

[Michael Phoenix]

I actually got my start in the Java world working on JSF Web applications
and just recently wrote my first Swing application. I was impressed with how
easy it was to learn, including the advanced topics like tree handling and
drag and drop. It made an excellent desktop application, one of these days I
am going to have to look into using it for Web applications. I agree with
Scott on the NetBeans Swing gui builder. It is really sweet and does a good
job handling the layout, which would definitely be the most tedious part of
Swing if you had to deal with the code manually.

On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 10:49 AM, Scott Fraser <sfraser at porticosys.com>wrote:

> Bryan said:
>
> >>
>
>  I really liked
> using a java swing app because it ran seamlessly across all the platform
> types. I also liked building a desktop app vs. a web application for this
> work because the tool was used continually through out the day by the
> majority of the users and having an actual application vs. a web app
> provided a faster, snappier interface, was easier to build and work on and
> I
> did not have to worry about multiple browser support.
>
> <<
>
> I so agree - we have had Java Swing applets in production use by our
> customers since Swing 1.0 (late 90's). We had an AWT based applet prior to
> that.
>
> I personally believe that Swing has gotten a very unfair wrap. It is SO
> much easier to work on a Swing based application than one that runs on top
> of any web applications framework - and I am including the convention based
> ones like Rails and Grails.
>
> That being said, we are decreasing our use of applets - we mainly use them
> for very rich applications that have GUI visio-like things going on (the
> user is dragging and dropping things onto a canvas and working with them
> visually).
>
> Gary - if I was starting fresh today on a GUI Java application, I would
> definitely plan on using Java Web Start as Bryan said. We actually support
> both (applets or Web Start) - there is no reason you have to use one or the
> other.
>
> I also would steer clear of SWT as it is not pure Java and not consistent
> across platforms. Swing performs amazingly well now on modern CPU's and
> JVM's - there really is no compelling reason to use SWT for a business
> application.
>
> If this is an application that would need to be supported and maintained by
> a lot of people over time, I would want to use Java for the core business
> logic of the application. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I don't
> want to make this response too lengthy.
>
> If the team is not large and distributed, or if you already have strength
> with Groovy, I would give a long hard look at Griffon:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griffon_%28framework%29
>
> I think using something like Griffon would be a great way to build a Java
> GUI application - but I would want to keep the Groovy usage to just the
> app-framework scaffolding, as I prefer using Java for the "meat" on those
> bones.
>
> By the way - you also might want to take a look at the GUI builder in
> Netbeans (aka "Matisse"?) and also what is in IntelliJ - they are both
> pretty amazing and help ease the pain of working with Swing layout managers,
> which is one of the biggest pains in Swing land.
>
> And on the layout manager front, check out MIG Layourt:
> http://www.miglayout.com/
>
> I have lot of Java/Swing related links saved here (some are dated now!):
> http://www.delicious.com/sfraser/swing
>
> -Scott
>
>
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