Swing or SWT? (like this is new)

As things, like tools and documentation, are today, which would you rather be developing with, Swing or SWT? Why?

(I'll just converse with myself, then...)

From what I've experienced, I'd lean towards Swing development, because the tools and documentation I've seen for it are better and more abundant than those I've seen for SWT.

I'd lean towards SWT, because the SWT GUIs I've used respond faster than Swing GUIs, and the native (to Windows, at least) look-and-feel seems to be accepted better amongst non-technical users, who seem to balk at Swing at first use (though I've never seen any official study to suggest this, it coincides with my limited experience).

I'd lean away from Swing, because I never enjoy the constraints of the grid bag.

I'd lean away from SWT, because I'm not familiar with how well it does in a non-Windows environment (and I don't know anybody with a Mac that I can try out to see how I think things work and feel on it). Of course, I fully appreciate that my concerns about SWT might quickly be overcome by reading a good book on the subject.

I'd lean towards SWT because i'm a control freak and I want to do my own garbage collection

Seriously though, if you are creating an Eclipse-based tool SWT might be the only option.

Originally posted by Jeremy Nicholson:
I'd lean towards SWT because i'm a control freak and I want to do my own garbage collection

Seriously though, if you are creating an Eclipse-based tool SWT might be the only option.

But if you are programming in Java, is one of the reasons to not have to worry about GC? Otherwise, program in C++, right?

If I have a preference, right now, I would choose Swing. Why? Because I know it better than I know SWT. However, I have a copy of DGT SWT and JFace, so who knows, maybe that will change when I get a chance to really get into SWT.

A few things to note that I like about SWT/JFace in no particular order:

Native Widgets - Performance is just a bit better and you get the default OS File Chooser, Font Chooser, and Color Chooser. Swing's File and Color Chooser are pretty ugly and there is no Font Chooser.

JFace is a nice wrapper around SWT. Swing needs something like this for rapid development.

I like the way you change some of the properties on a widget in SWT better by passing the constructor INT's (SWT.BORDER | SWT.WRAP)

Aside from that, Swing is the ultimate GUI library, no matter what anyone says. You can pretty much make any widget do what you want or create a custom widget. Something that is not very easy in SWT since it's tied in to native calls.

Hello i was just looking at the conversation ..N i am quite new to this java N i am learning swings from past 2 years .. N i wanted to know whts swt N how does it differ from Swings or Awt.. i just wanted to know wht is swt N does it have other Api.. i am aware of it .. can anyone let me in detail please..

Thanking you
Ranganath.S

I'm a swing man and I've never used SWT so I can't give an opinion on that. My view on Swing (as Gregg says) is that it is very powerful. I think there is a trade-off between power and complexity, and this is Swing's main drawback - it's not easy to use for the beginner. To do all but the simplest things you need to get relatively involved. However there are very good resources freely available on the web.
A lot of people seem to think Swing apps are slow and this is often touted as its main drawback. I've never experienced this problem.
If your users baulk at the metal look & feel, you can always use the windows l&f...your users wont notice.
D.