Building a GUI using NetBeans platform (not Netbeans IDE !)

[Pimousse]

Hi everybody,

My aim is to build a GUI. As I'm neither a senior java programmer nor a
junior one (somewhere between the two ..), I'm looking for making my life
easier ;o)
(Hope you'll understand what I mean as i'm not a native english speaker)

I've done in the past few years several GUIs in Swing but the results
weren't as good as expected : indeed, i found swing really hard to
manipulate ...

I heard about NetBeans Platform as a framework on which I could build my gui
: I went on the website, downloaded the packages, understood that i'd have
to developp modules etc ...
But as I haven't got a lot of time to read amounts of docs, i'm looking for
examples, or a doc that explicitly explain how to do a module .... Sth like
a beginner howto ;o)
Actually, I have to quickly decide if I'll use the netbeans platform to
developp or no : convince me ! )

Bonus question : about SWT : is it possible to include swing code in SWT ?
<-- i'm not asking fot the eternal discusses swt / swing ... )

@++
Pimousse

 

[Thomas Weidenfeller]

I've done in the past few years several GUIs in Swing but the results
weren't as good as expected : indeed, i found swing really hard to
manipulate ...

The problem is really not Swing. If you ever had to work with such
atrocities like xview, you would know what I am talking about. Or to
take another example, a simple button in CDE/Motif has approx. 200 [sic]
configurable attributes. A Swing JButton only approx. 50. So Swing is
four times simpler than Motif )) And this of course does not address
the interdependencies between widgets (e.g. if the window resizes, who
should stick with whom?).

The real problem is that developing good(!) GUIs is hard, in multiple
dimensions. It requires a wide range of experience and competence, from
"good taste" via a feeling for the small details to in-depth knowledge
of your toolkit's API and style guide. You have to get a lot of things
right to even get an acceptable GUI.

I heard about NetBeans Platform as a framework

I think you are about to make it even harder. Using a framework requires
of course to understand the framework. And, in the not unlikely event
that your framework doesn't do exactly what you want, you might find
yourself in the unfortunate position of having to go down one level -
back to Swing. So you might end up with having to know the framework and
having to know Swing.

I would suggest you take the challenge and learn Swing from the ground up.

/Thomas

 

[Roedy Green]

I've done in the past few years several GUIs in Swing but the results
weren't as good as expected : indeed, i found swing really hard to
manipulate ...

Check out Google for Karsten Lentzsch. This guy is a programmer with
an artist's eye for how to create elegant GUIs. Read what he has to
say.