[news.eclipse.platform.swt] Re: Tips for GUI Code Organization

[Tom Schindl <tom.schindl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Well I use different things to keep my UI-Code clean (as possible).

1. I use the Databinding-Framework => No Model/UI-Sync-Listener-crowed
2. I use the Part-Concept Eclipse in my lower-level componenents (I
   simply named it FormPart)


Take a look at the following ASCII-Art

---------------------------------------------
|            PersonDataFormPart             |
|                                           |
|                                           |
|                                           |
---------------------------------------------
| AddressPart |  ContractsPart |  ....      | <=== CTabFolder
---------------------------------------------
| ContentArea                               |
|                                           |
|                                           |
|                                           |
---------------------------------------------

I have an interal lib that abstracts all those things it even allows me 
to make use of Extension Points to contribute (e.g. AddressPart, ...) 
this way I have a completely plug-able. I'm making heavy use of 
Extension Points (e.g. to contribute ContextMenus, ...) and the 
CommandsFramework which leads to code really clean and 
JUnit-Testable-Code :-)

The next logical step is to define my UI not in Java-Code but in 
XML-Markup but because of time constraints I had no time to go further 
on this road but the current sources work quite well. See 
http://publicsvn.bestsolution.at/repos/java/at.bestsolution.exswt/

Tom

Anthony Rosequist schrieb:
> Right now I'm working on my first big GUI project (with SWT, naturally), 
> and I'm finding that the code gets very cluttered very quickly.
>
> It's easy to get pages and pages of purely procedural code without 
> hardly trying. I've been grouping many of the common tasks into arrays 
> and such, but there's still so much. Is there a good way to apply OOP 
> principles (or anything) to clean up tons of GUI code?
>
> For example, I've got right-click menus that open property windows. I 
> had tried to abstract the right-click menus into a separate class. 
> However, I found that I eventually needed a Display, Shell, etc., so I 
> had to pass these things into the objects when they were instantiated, 
> and it just seemed to add to the confusion without helping the clutter.
>
> My backend is pretty well-organized (IMO), but my GUI code is just 
> horrendous. I was just wondering if anyone had any tips on how the pros 
> do it.
>
> Thanks,
> Anthony Rosequist


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Tom Schindl                                          JFace-Committer
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