Re: Try Swing

[Jay <djayakumar@bellsouth.net>]

Personally I use Eclipse as my primary IDE.  But when it comes to 
develop applications i choose Swing.

Here are my reasons:

1. It is a Java standard. You get platform independce automatically.
2. No matter what, Swing is constantly improving. I worked in JDK1.1.8 
with Swing add in and also worked in 1.4.2. It is performance has 
improved a lot.
3. In terms of memory consumption, for example, a simple JVM startup 
application is improved to 4MB in 1.4.2 from 13MB in 1.3.1. The JDK 1.5 
should improve the startup time and memory consumption more. [though i 
am disappointed that the VM sharing is not part of the 1.5 release]
4. If you are not satisfied with the look and feel, visit 
www.jgoodies.com. They have looks and feel that are one of the best. 
Recently it is released under BSD license.
5. Unless you are writing an IDE, you don't really need to worry about 
Swing performance. It is within the reasonalbe limit. Also, try to use 
threading in swing to improve performance. Check out the recent cool 
Java Swing application. Yahoo Site builder. 
http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/
6. Maintenance. More developers know swing than SWT.
7.  You can WEBSTART your swing that will reduce ur admin overhead in 
different releases
8. I am not against SWT :)

Jay

Lee Chalupa wrote:

> Hello.
>
> I need to start development of a thick client for an application and I 
> am debating whether to use SWT or Swing.  I presently use swing in the 
> MagicDraw UML product and I use SWT in Eclipse so I have some 
> significant experience as a user in each.
>
> I'm very pleased with the MagicDraw application and have no complaints 
> with it's interface.  Though I do appreciate what people describe as 
> "spongy" swing controls.  This is a noticable problem but not a 
> significant problem for me in the MagicDraw swing application but I 
> can't speak for other users.
>
> My application will be competing against other vendor's gui products 
> that are best of breed so I really want to avoid any potential 
> performance issues with the gui from the start. In this case, it's not 
> so much an issue of Swing versus SWT it's one of these products versus 
> VB or Delphi.
>
> The application is designed for use in a small office so we will have 
> the ability to control the deployment of the application thus using 
> add-ons to the JDK like SWT would not be an issue.
>
> As long as SWT still provides platform independence, what is the 
> downside of using SWT?  One maybe the lack of gui tools?  One maybe 
> the risk that Sun will improve swing in the future and eliminate the 
> benefits SWT provides making the need obsolete?  One maybe lack of 
> educational materials?  One maybe the limited variety of widgets 
> offered in the toolkit.
>
> I'm currently reading information on various web sites.
>
> Does anyone have any other advice on managing this issue?
>
> Thanks
>
> lee
>
>