I’ve been playing around with SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit) lately. And it looks very interesting. It allows creating a Java app with the look and feel and responsiveness of a native app. If you use a Java SWT application on Windows, it operates just like any other Windows app. The main example is the Eclipse platform itself.
SWT has a bunch of widgets and creating a simple app is not too bad. But, to make development a bit easier, there is JFace, which is a set of SWT helper classes.
Eclipse has the Visual Editor plug-in that allows visual editing of apps. But, I’ve found it to be quite quirky. It’s certainly no comparison with something like Visual Studio, but when it works, it’s not too bad. The widgets properties editor is convenient. But, I find myself mostly just running the app to find out what it’ll look like.
And to make app development even more powerful, there is RCP (Rich Client Platform). This sits on top of SWT/JFace and makes it easy to create Eclipse plug-ins or full-blown Java apps. As a matter of fact, Eclipse was refactored in version 3.0 to be a RCP program.
General:
SWT – Answers.com
SWT – Eclipse
SWT/JFace API
Tutorials:
SWT Creates Fast, Native-looking GUIs for Your Java Apps
SWT Programming with Eclipse/a>
Use SWT for data entry
Understanding SWT Layouts
Getting Started with Eclipse and the SWT
List of more tutorials
SWT/JFace Examples:
Java2s
Visual Editor:
Visual Editor Project
VE FAQ
Build GUIs with the Eclipse Visual Editor project
Eclipse Wiki
Forums:
EclipsePluginCentral
EclipseZone
RCP:
RCP home
RCP Tutorial
SWT and JWS:
Using Java Web Start with SWT
Deploy an SWT application using Java Web Start
RCP and JWS:
Eclipse Webstart Deployment
Support launching from JWS (JNLP)
WebRCP
SWT Editors:
Visual Editor
Jigloo
SWT Designer
V4All
Applications written with RCP:
RCP Applications
OpenTime
Kadosu
Jmoney
NomadPIM
PojoeditorRCP
zdt
SWT Libraries:
TWIST