GUI designer

[ocau...@gmail.com]

Why does the GUI Designer use non standard widgets. they dont behave as good as the standard swing ones. For example.

• the sliders dont slide when dragged with the mouse.
• the tree elements will have a "-" sign even when there not expanded
• theres no scrollbar when theres a long list of items to choose from. must use the mouse wheel instead.
• none of the buttons even look like button.

i could go on and on.

Why reinvent the wheel ? it just plain looks bad and makes it harder to use.

[Shai Almog]

These are standard Codename One widgets as it's written in Codename One and runs on devices/web within the build app.

[ocau...@gmail.com]

On Monday, August 12, 2019 at 2:28:31 PM UTC+10, Shai Almog wrote:

These are standard Codename One widgets as it's written in Codename One and runs on devices/web within the build app.

Im talking about the actual GUI Builder tool. The actual tool its self. why doesnt it use JButtons and JTextFields etc. Why has every widget has been reinvented ?

The only standard thing it seems to use is a JMenuBar. The widgets you guys use are so janky and inconsistent.

[ocau...@gmail.com]

On Monday, August 12, 2019 at 2:28:31 PM UTC+10, Shai Almog wrote:

These are standard Codename One widgets as it's written in Codename One and runs on devices/web within the build app.

Its a GUI development tool. used with an IDE. People expect a proper GUI like Swing. People are using this on a desktop computer. Not a bloody phone.

What possible reason is there for this not to use standard Swing widgets for the designer tool.

you cant even drag a widget to the list of containers. Or rearrange widgets by dragging them around in the component tree. Such a bizarre and horrible choice to reinvent every single widget in a inferior way.

[Dave Dyer]

As an unofficial explanation - swing is a giant beast that's not easily portable to the mobile

platforms codename1 supports; and probably it's entangled with intellectual property issues.

You ought to regard the codename1  UI as a separate platform.

[ocau...@gmail.com]

What does being portable to mobile have to do with it ? I'm talking about the actual GUI Designer Tool. the actual tool you use to design the mobile GUI's.

Who on gods green earth is using a moblie phone to design their GUI's for apps they develop ? there using desktop PC's running netbeans, intelliJ or eclipse.

The software stack is cool. its just the designer tool is very buggy and not user friendly. everything has been reinvented to do what was already done decades ago with swing. Why they did not use swing or javaFX for the GUI designer interface makes no sense whatsoever. Who ever at codename one who made that desion needs to be shot !

[Dave Dyer]

It's called "eating your own dog food"

While I agree with your unsatisfactory evaluation of the designer,  I don't

think the cause is that they used their own widgets to implement it.

[Shai Almog]

IntelliJ/IDEA was written well over a decade ago when Swing was at its prime. I doubt they would have re-made that choice today. Swings been dead for years, bugs go unfixed and features just aren't added. JavaFX never got to live. It's useless. Both look awful on newer hardware and don't support newer OS features/capabilities such as UWP...

The same goes to SWT which is also a dead end technology.

Even Java itself is in peril and pretty bad condition due to the stupid JVM distribution policies that make JavaFX apps even harder/nearly impossible to distribute. This GUI builder works on iOS, Android and in the browser directly right now. Unfortunately when we started the work there were no desktop Codename One apps so some of the theme elements need refinement but unlike Swing we can actually fix and refine everything, it just takes proper bug reports from developers rather than whining and grandstanding from people who should know better.

[joshua]

(javafx/swing) Both look awful on newer hardware

if they look so awful then why did you guys roll your own gui that looks worse ?

This GUI builder works on iOS, Android and in the browser directly right now

Who in the world is using this GUI designer on iOS, android or a web browser ? im guessing no one. there are no IDE's for these systems. they are not development systems. Who was the moron that thought

coding a desktop tool in a GUI meant for mobile phones was a good idea ?

unlike Swing we can actually fix and refine everything, it just takes proper bug reports from developers rather than whining and grandstanding from people who should know better.

Swing is part of java and is open source is it not ? so just take your own advice then and file bug reports or fork it and expand on it to fit your needs.

Despite its age swing is infinitely superior to the sub par and buggy system used by the GUI Designer. You should really re-write the whole thing in swing or javafx so that it actually behaves as users expect. And doesn't look like trash.

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[Shai Almog]

(javafx/swing) Both look awful on newer hardware

if they look so awful then why did you guys roll your own gui that looks worse ?

That's a matter of taste. Unlike Swing, we can actually improve the look with a bit of CSS. As I mentioned before, this isn't helpful.

 

This GUI builder works on iOS, Android and in the browser directly right now

Who in the world is using this GUI designer on iOS, android or a web browser ? im guessing no one. there are no IDE's for these systems. they are not development systems. Who was the moron that thought

coding a desktop tool in a GUI meant for mobile phones was a good idea ?

Have you heard of tablets?

There are quite a few people who use development tools on mobile devices and we're launching one which is in Alpha stages right now.

 

unlike Swing we can actually fix and refine everything, it just takes proper bug reports from developers rather than whining and grandstanding from people who should know better.

Swing is part of java and is open source is it not ? so just take your own advice then and file bug reports or fork it and expand on it to fit your needs.

Swing is open source in title only. You can't fix it and I'm saying that as a guy who worked for Sun/Oracle.

Any fix would need to go through a deep review pipeline so it will never be accepted.

Forking isn't an option since one would need to ship the forked JVM with the app. 

It sounds like you don't really know much and just intent on wasting my time. Your complaints were noted, feel free to use some other tool.

[ocau...@gmail.com]

That's insanity. Why put resources into that rather than fixing or improving what you are already offering.

Your complaints were noted, feel free to use some other tool.

The other tools are bloated and crap. imo. It makes more sense to just use java. i Just wish the codename one API was closer to the real java. Theres just so much inconsistency and jankyness like it was all just thrown together. Im still going to use codename one. I just hope you guys make polish it. The theme editor is in swing, the gui builder is in the crappy mobile gui.   I could go on for days but i wont waste your time. Just focus on the polish rather that start another "new tablet IDE" that no one wants.

 

[Shai Almog]

That's insanity. Why put resources into that rather than fixing or improving what you are already offering.

That's exactly what I'm saying. This is a basic principle of "dogfooding". We're using Codename One to build Codename One thus improving all the pieces together.