[news.eclipse.technology.albireo] Re: Albireo (Swing/SWT integration) al

[Gordon Hirsch <gordon.hirsch@xxxxxxx>]

David Perez wrote:
> Very interesting this project.
> Has anyone tried successfully integrate Swing and SWT in an RCP app?

It's definitely being done in shipping, production-quality RCP apps. I 
can't really call the integration "seamless", but it's good enough.

> I know it is possible as Albireo demostrates. 
> What I don't like is to have 2 event threads, with the consequent sync 
> problems.

This is indeed the main difficulty with integration as it exists today. 
The extent of the difficulty depends on what you are trying to 
integrate. When embedding Swing into SWT, certain types of Swing 
components are just better suited to the task. In general, it's easier 
to embed components that are relatively self-contained. Swing components 
that require less interaction with the rest of the application result in 
fewer problems with coordinating the two event threads.

That said, we have also been exploring ways to merge the two event 
threads, so perhaps this will be less of an issue in the future.

> > > > The Albireo project creates an Swing/SWT integration facility that 
> > > > is based
> > > > on the SWT_AWT bridge but should provide a better out-of-the-box 
> > > > experience.
> > > >
> > > > The alpha release of Albireo is available for download from the 
> > > > project wiki
> > > > page: