Any Alternative to Swing?

[Niveditha]

Hello All,
I have been using Swing since i know java.
I would like to know if there are any LIGHT WEIGHT alternatives to swing which can improve the look and feel of the application.
These are the few i could find but have not used
1. AWT
2. SWT
3. SwingWT
4. BambooKit - XML based
5. Zaval

Any suggestions on which is better?

[Niveditha]

Can JIDE and JGoodies be added into list?

[Eranga]

AWT is the start of GUI in Java. I think you have already see the difference in Windows and Linux of such a GUI. In Windows it's horrible. So it's replace with Swing. It's lightweight that AWT.

I don't think that JIDE can replace it. It's framework, kind of a docking framework. That's it.

[Niveditha]

I dont know anything about JIDE or anything else i have mentioned other than swing i have just heard of it.

I have an application based on Swing, so what can i use to make its look and feel better?

[Eranga]

I think Swing gives the much better look than anything else. As far as I know there is no any other alternative for Swing. Even I use it for a long way now.

Using Swing you can have nice look in one way. But it's not applicable in any project. That's disabling the borders and title bars of the container. So I can see the GUI as a sheet of paper. :)

[fishtoprecords]

AWT was a hack so they could claim to have "some" GUI in java 1. Its terrible. Don't even think about using it.

Swing is OK.

But everything these days has to be Web 2.0, which means AJAX or some other cool web-based technology. Why would you want a normal GUI?

[Eranga]

Is it good to use AJAX in lightweight front end applications? I don't think so.

And also some people still use AWT, I don't know why they doing it. They really loved it. Specially Linux users. May be AWT gives quite similar view of Linux. :)

[fishtoprecords]

What do you mean by a lightweight front end application? Swing only works for applications you run on your computer, It doesn't do any Web 2.0 stuff.

Granted, doing AJAX is a pain, as it requires at least Apache, Tomcat, jsp, servlets, and lots of other stuff.

But I haven't written any professional java stand alone applications in years, perhaps this century.

I have no idea why folks would want AWT. You can swap in look and feel with swing to match either the native OS look and feel, or motif or nearly anything else.

I expect that AJAX itself is a short term solution. We need all the fancy rich internet application stuff, but AJAX is painful to develop. I expect something newer and cooler will replace it RSN.

[Eranga]

What do you mean by a lightweight front end application? Swing only works for applications you run on your computer, It doesn't do any Web 2.0 stuff.

Most Java people use those words. Client side simple GUI called front end lightweight applications, while we called back end for server side applications. As you said it doesn't do any web 2.0 stuff. Most of the I tried to use simple process in client side. Use of simple scripts and so is fine, I think and I use it now.

Granted, doing AJAX is a pain, as it requires at least Apache, Tomcat, jsp, servlets, and lots of other stuff.

Yes it is, that's why I avoid such things in client side.

But I haven't written any professional java stand alone applications in years, perhaps this century.

Why is that, you are not a Java developer? :)

I have no idea why folks would want AWT. You can swap in look and feel with swing to match either the native OS look and feel, or motif or nearly anything else.

Me too, I really hate that. And hope it's clear to you now.

[fishtoprecords]

Why is that, you are not a Java developer?

Perhaps. I thought I was. But client side stuff is not what people pay me to do. Its all server stuff. I haven't seen anyone even talk about writing applications that you install on a PC this century.

Its all about writing server code that can scale to hundreds of thousands of users.

I did a lot of applets back in 1997 or so, but applets didn't gain any traction in the real world. Which is too bad, as they could do a lot of the rich internet app stuff back then. What they couldn't do was get though corporate firewalls.

[Eranga]

It's quite true on me too. In the early days when I start to work in the industry working on client side applications. Developing custom software and so on. But in later I think that more trend take place in sever side applications. Now I deal with server side development in grate distance, and still on client side too.

[Niveditha]

Hello Folks,
Thanks for ur replies.
How about using some frameworks like JIDE or JGOODIES my manager just wants to see the application in a v different look and feel, we already have all the skins available in our application and he is not happy with it.

Any other suggestions?

[Eranga]

As I said, JIDE is just a docking framework, that mean simply dock your components on the working area. I don't know how to change the look and feel of a GUI using that.

[daGame]

What do you mean by a lightweight front end application? Swing only works for applications you run on your computer, It doesn't do any Web 2.0 stuff.

Granted, doing AJAX is a pain, as it requires at least Apache, Tomcat, jsp, servlets, and lots of other stuff.

But I haven't written any professional java stand alone applications in years, perhaps this century.

I have no idea why folks would want AWT. You can swap in look and feel with swing to match either the native OS look and feel, or motif or nearly anything else.

I expect that AJAX itself is a short term solution. We need all the fancy rich internet application stuff, but AJAX is painful to develop. I expect something newer and cooler will replace it RSN.

You are right here. Ajax is a pain as i found out with the jMaki widgets recently. I dont think that Ajax is a short term solution coz we get to see a lot of web sites these days developing with just Ajax as the main technology. What do you think of the recent insurge of RIA stuff like the jMaki, GWT Explorer(h t t p : / / e x t j s . c o m / e x p l o r e r)(since i cannot post the link yet ;)), and i think more and more RIA technologies will definitely come regardless of their complexity.

Sorry if this is offtopic :D

regards.