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Swing x SWT for Usability

 
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Hello guys. I know this comparison has been asked for years and I've read some, but I haven't seen any article comparing them regarding Usability.

Let's consider Swing with Windows Look&Feel, both frameworks over Windows compared with a "native" .Net application.

Regarding user productivity, shortcuts, advanced components like datetime pickers, calendars, grids. Keyboard (Tab) interaction, take focus over other windows, systray icons and context menu.

Which framework is better for Usability and productivity? Links to articles would be very much appretiated!
 
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I guess that articles (if they exist) should be available easily by google: swt swing comparison

I haven't used Netbeans Platform (built over Swing) myself, but have read and heard that is it the way to go to build serious desktop applications in Java. Similarly there's Eclipse RCP built over SWT. Then there is the SwingX. Comparing just plain Swing and SWT might not be as useful as you might hope.
 
Hikari Shidou
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I have algready googled about the subject, but found nothing regarding user Usability.

SwingX can be put on table instead of Swing. Third party components in either side can too, as long as they aren't so many that most GUI is based on them.

Using a few components of a framework inside another one isn't desireble.

What I'm rly looking for is which one provides best productivity and complex graphical components, that resambles Windows native Look&Feel.

For example. I've not worked with Swing for some years, but I remember that masks over edit input didn't work well in Swing. While Borland VLC components used to process mask as soon as user typed a key, Swing used to wait for the component to lose focus to process mask as "fix" the string.
 
Martin Vashko
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Hikari Shidou wrote:I have algready googled about the subject, but found nothing regarding user Usability.


I wasn't sure whether you meant user usability or programmer's usability at first. And I haven't stumbled upon end-user experience comparison neither.

If you need to produce a good GUI application quickly, your best bet would be, in my opinion, to stick to the technology you know best. I don't have a good advice for longer term decision, though.
 
Hikari Shidou
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Sorry for delay.

Indeed normally we should stick with what we know best. But in this situation I'm looking for the best tool, in features set. I'd rather learn a new framework, if it provides better result.

It is said we have some GUI frameworks for Java and nobody, in all these years, have made a good comparison based on Usability and User Experience. Java could even provide better graphical components and innovate.

I'm willing to learn a new framework if I knew it's worth it, but I'm sad to have to learn both just to know which is best.

I'd also wanna know which one is better supported and updated, which is more stable, etc.
 
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Well, as far as I know if you programmed the same application in Swing and SWT then you'd end up with two applications which are basically identical when used. There might be minor things here and there which were slightly different, but they are unlikely to affect usability much. And even if they did I don't think you could take those minor things and claim that because of them it made the whole framework substandard.
 
Hikari Shidou
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So, from user's POV they are almost identical, and their differences are in their APIs and how they render components?

Then, which one have more and better components? Would it be SwingX?
 
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Over the years I have heard good things and some bad things about both. I think you'll find that's true about food, cars, washing machines, boats, shoes, skis, etc, etc. Both of these have had a lot of effort and work put into them. This is ultimately an opinion question - here's one link that is "only" 2 years old and I think kind of mirrors what I said:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7358775/java-gui-frameworks-what-to-choose-swing-swt-awt-swingx-jgoodies-javafx

It has been my experience that applications I see offered in the real world are almost exclusively swing or swing based. This is also my preference.
 
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I just checked a few job sites for 'java swing' and 'java swt' without quotes.

On Dice, SWT results in 36 hits, while Swing results in 283. Monster has 16 for Swing and 4 for SWT. Careerbuilder, 107 for Swing and 16 for SWT. Finally, Indeed lists 996 Swing jobs and 106 looking for SWT skills.

Looks like the real world prefers Swing by a large margin.
 
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