Re: RAD IDE for SWT?

["Greg Brown" <gbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The development of an excellent RAD IDE will determine SWT's success on
the
> desktop, in my opinion. If an exceptional - or at least usable - RAD IDE
is
> not developed for SWT, it will show IBM's / Sun's / et.al., lack of
> comprehension of anything non 'enterprise'. Meaning the majority of modern
> desktop software development will continue to be left in Microsoft's
hands.
>
> Nobody wants to see some VB programmer take their job away. So one must be
> able to compete by having development software that is at least
competitive.

This is exactly what I was talking about in a post I sent yesterday. SWT has
a chance to make huge inroads in the client-side development space, if it is
packaged correctly. What SWT needs is:

- A good GUI builder tool, a la VB
- A browser plugin to run SWT apps in a web page or in a "Web Start"-like
launcher

There are very few viable alternatives for building "rich" internet
applications (i.e. apps that run in a browser but aren't constrained by the
limitations of HTML/DHTML). There is a huge opportunity for a company to
learn from Sun and MS's failures with the original applet and ActiveX
controls, respectively, and offer a technology that can really take the
internet to the next level. Macromedia is doing a great job of this with
Flash MX, but the door is still wide open for competition. I'd be surprised
if MS does not release an ActiveX replacement technology sometime in the
near future to address this need. I'd like to see something based on Java
enter the running.

G