Re: [platform-swt-dev] AWT Toolkit using SWT (was: From Swing to SWT)

[Jim White <jim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Scott Stanchfield wrote:
> Take a look at some past notes from me on this topic. Basically, I started
> doing this, then stopped because I was deathly afraid that I'd be the one
> responsible for turning Eclipse into a FrankenUI -- some stuff would look
> native, others would look like Swing.
>
> Raise your hand if "ewww"...

That's the wrong spin on this issue.

The point of SWT is that the native layer should be a direct mapping of 
the OS API to expose it to Java.  A big problem with Sun's JDK is that 
the AWT peer's are implemented in native code rather than Java. 
Providing an AWT Toolkit for SWT eliminates all the incompatibility 
nonsense.

Now SWT could have done it this way from the start (not that AWT would 
be required for using SWT but that SWT's LCD API would have matched AWT 
at the peer layer) and there would have been much less waste.  But like 
so much else with the Java GUI debacle, it is water long under the bridge.

(And I won't even begin to get into how IBM was a key player in the 
death of IFC and how that is a big part of the subsequent missteps. 
Although it may be noteworthy that the argument of why IFC and Bongo 
must die is that there mustn't be a fracturing of the community/products 
by having more than one GUI API.)

Jim