Best Java GUI

[Chavoux Luyt]

Hi guys

I am basically new to Java (did some programming in TINI Java using Borland JBuilder a few years ago). It seems to me that Java uses a lot of different GUI "widget-sets"/toolkits (e.g. Swing, AWT, SWT, Qt, wxWidgets ). I currently have Eclipse installed with all kind of goodies (jee, soa, modeling, reporting and pulsar), most probably unnecessary. My question relates to what would be the best option to use for rewriting a (Visual Studio) C# app in Java.

Here is the scenario: We have a GUI app written for a Windows Mobile device (using c# .NET) and want to port it to Android devices in future. For various reasons, Java will be the best choice of language to use.

I need to get familiar with Java so that I'll be ready for the rewrite when the time comes, but coming from a Delphi background, Eclipse/Java currently seems very confusing. I just don't want to waste time learning a Java GUI toolkit that will not be of use in future. Obviously each one will have their own opinion about the "best" Java GUI, so please give your reasons with the opinion... :-)

So here is what I would like:
1. Graphical builder; i.e. see what it would look like before compile. Similar to Delphi or Visual Studio. Preferable something that can integrate with Eclipse.
2. Multi-platform; must include Android devices as target device. (Most important requirement)
3. As similar to C# .NET as possible? The least amount of work required to port. (I am not sure if this aspect will really make any difference).

Thanks
Chavoux

[Abdul Makadam]

Hi

 

You will probably want to develop a midlet (j2me). Netbeans has some good support for midlets, like gui builder, runtime emulator, sample projects, etc. Developing a midlet is probably very different to a c# windows modile app but at least c# and java have a similar syntax.

Good luck

Abdul

 

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[Ewald Horn]

Hi.

So does Android now support J2ME? I must have missed out on that - we
tried something quite just over a year ago, it looked promising (used
NetBeans for visual design) until we reached a point where we could
run smooth on BlackBerry devices but just could not make things work
on the Android. Given that we only had the emulator, I guess that
might have been the real problem. AFAIK, you have to use the native
Android GUI libraries if you want to get anywhere and those are not
based on any you mentioned in your post.

How about getting the Android developer kit and looking at the
examples? It might give you a better idea of what the platform is
about and how to target it. I'm sure there are great plugins for
Eclipse as well, so ask around on the Eclipse or Android forums for
tools - it might not be something main-stream Java developers might
have heard of.

Regards
Ewald