RE: Which UI "engine" to use?

Your best bet is probably something XAML like, such as XUI.

That is what I would eventually like to get to - been reading about it in my
spare time.

I am limited in the amount of time the customer is willing to put into this,
and being I have already implemented many of the features they are asking to
be dynamically created using AWT, I think I will stick with Java objects vs.
a different XML technology (we actually created our own XML spec to pass
back and forth based on our needs).

After doing some more reading it appears SWT *might* have some issues
running on other platforms. Of course I was reading opinions so I will
limit the weight I put on it. At this point I may take a quick shot at
converting my current AWT code to Matisse and see what I come up with.

On the XML User Interface stuff, anybody using it?

Thanks,
Aaron Bartell
http://mowyourlawn.com

-----Original Message-----
From: java400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:java400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Joe Pluta
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 2:42 PM
To: Java Programming on and around the iSeries / AS400
Subject: Re: Which UI "engine" to use?

None of the IDEs handle dynamic definition well, including Matisse. And
unfortunately, the majority of layout managers really stink when it
comes to hand coding. What you really need is a scripted resources
builder, like we had in the old Windows days. Your best bet is probably
something XAML like, such as XUI.

Joe

So I am about to get into a contract project where I have been tasked to
build a "nice looking" Java desktop application that communicates with the
server. The "nice looking" was referring to a previous project I worked

on

with the same customer where we used AWT simply because that is the only
thing supported on the platform we were on (btw, AWT is NOT nice looking
:-))



I have done a very small project with Matisse and a little in Swing
(nothing in SWT). What would others recommend for a direction based on

your

experiences? Please note that I am not as much interested in GUI drag and
drop IDE's as I will be drawing the screen dynamically based on what is

sent

down from the server. It is more important to have an easy to use object
set and also would be nice to have a solid set of UI components (i.e. one

of

the requirements is a menu system).



My current plans are to go with Matisse, but I am willing to be swayed if
others have opines that would warrant a change in direction.