[news.eclipse.tools] Re: Eclipse SWT & Swing Coexistance - Help!

[Jan Kratky <jan_kratky@xxxxxxxxx>]

> I have to agree with Mike.
>
> Until Eclipse can coexist with Swing and AWT, you're just going to
> keep hearing these complaints. In the meantime, it's going to inhibit
> deployment of Eclipse plug-ins.
>
> Creating a custom widget set is fine if you're doing it for your own
> use. But if you're expecting a large community of developers to have
> to learn another toolkit, well... that's another story. Furthermore,
> you're asking those developers to learn this toolkit just in order to
> interface with a single product, effectively severing them from the
> larger developer community that exists around AWT and Swing. Not
> attractive to the developers or to the ones who will pay their
> salaries while they climb the learning curve. Especially if they've
> already invested heavily in gaining Swing expertise.
>
> It is fine for internal IBM/OTI developers to be asked to invest in
> SWT. It's their baby, right? However, when Eclipse goes out to the
> wider world, what will be the motivation for architects at other
> companies who will make decisions as to whether or not to join the
> Eclipse crusade? Won't they see it as a Microsoft-like effort to tie
> users into a paradigm of IBM's creation?
>
> OK, that said, it seems that the Eclipse folks recognize the need for
> interoperability with Swing/AWT - the "experimental" mechanism shows
> that. Any ideas on when this mechanism might pass the experimental
> phase? I would hope that this is high on the list of "to dos".
>
> -Jan J. Kratky