| RE: SWT History and Design Decisions (WAS: [platform-swt-dev] AWT Toolkit using SWT (was: From Swing to SWT)) |
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Oh please, Scott… you’re less
annoying by half than most of the people in the workplace. You bother to
consider this stuff, after all.
That’s more than most.
I’m beginning to feel that this is a familiarity/comfort debate, because
I can see theoretically how your tool would serve many of the requirements I
would have in a builder. But the
resulting code leaves me feeling uncomfortable, and I think it’s mostly
what I’m used to. Where can I
see this tool of yours? Regards, Christian. -----Original Message----- Hey, I live to annoy ;) That depends on the UI
builder. Most javabean-based builders use live components to display what the
UI will look like (as does mine). Some even have two modes: design and
"live". "Live" mode basically lets you assemble and test a
UI all at once. I'm not a big fan of live mode as I believe you're apt to get
yourself into some unusual states if you edit on the fly. Manipulating the objects
live can be done with either representation. In my builder, I keep a
"live" version of the UI offscreen to take snapshots. I suppose I
could expose that, but I'm not sure. If I do, it'll be a low development
priority for me. I found development in VAJ to be quite quick, and the
compile-test cycle didn't feel like it got in the way. I've actually done live
work with customers using it (and they loved the experience ;) VAJ supported (and my
builder supports) subclasses, but mine allows easy framework creation (you
can create a GUI and when using it, add components into that GUI if you provide
a containerDelegate specification in the BeanInfo.) Bringing up the HCI/HF
end of things is a great point, and where I feel that my pluggability can
really be an advantage. A different set of plugins could be used to present a
different user experience, as well as generate code (or resource
files). Kinda like the way custom tags make it easier for non programmers
to do JSPs (when programmers write the tag handlers), different manipulations
could make a UI easier for non-programmers. -- Scott |