Designing GUIs: really better NetBeans?
Michele
I read on the web that NetBeans is better than Eclipse in designing GUIs.
Do you confirm this?
Thanks
RedGrittyBrick
Netbeans includes a visual GUI-builder for GUIs called Matisse.
For Eclipse there are add-ons, the main one is VE (Visual Editor).
I believe there is a commercial version of Eclipse that includes Matisse.
I, and many other people, design GUIs without using a visual
GUI-builder. I found learning to use the main Layout managers a useful
skill. I recommend you try it.
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/layout/using.html
Important layout managers include:
- FlowLayout
- BoxLayout
- BorderLayout
- GridLayout
- GridBagLayout (tough to learn but the most capable of these)
I suggest you learn the others before attempting to use GridBagLayout.
There are also layout managers that are designed for use by visual
GUI-builders, e.g. SpringLayout. I suspect they are not good to use
without a visual GUI-builder - so I avoid using them.
Well regarded 3rd party layout mangers include
- FormLayout (Part of Karsten Lentsch's "JGoodies" product set)
- MigLayout (my favourite).
--
RGB
RedGrittyBrick
RedGrittyBrick wrote:
>
> Well regarded 3rd party layout mangers include
> - FormLayout (Part of Karsten Lentsch's "JGoodies" product set)
Oops, I mis-spelled Karsten's last name, it is Lentzsch.
--
RGB
David Segall
Yes, but the comparison is not really fair. The Eclipse GUI builders
had to be designed to use the layout managers supplied by Sun. The
NetBeans GUI builder designers were able to persuade Sun that they
needed a new layout manager and GroupLayout is included in current
releases of Java.
<http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/Interviews/violet_pavek_qa.html>.
Like me, and unlike many posters in this group, the designers of the
NetBeans GUI builder regarded _not_ having to learn the intricacies of
Swing Layout Managers as a desirable goal.
If you are not influenced by price the NetBeans GUI builder has been
ported to Eclipse <http://www.myeclipseide.com/> and the clever
WindowBuilder Pro <http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/>
supports GroupLayout.
jb
> I read on the web that NetBeans is better than Eclipse in designing GUIs.
> Do you confirm this?
>
I like Eclipse's VisualEditor, sometime ago I've tried to switch to
another editor, but found it impossible. Visual editor has this
feature that it generates manageable, readable, editable, and easy to
understand code. Unlike both mentioned earlier NetBeans editor and
WidnowBuilder it uses lazy initialization pattern to separate
initialization of components. Also it does not need to lock down parts
of code that you cant edit, you may edit code by hand, and VE is still
able to work with your changes.
Only disadvantage of VE is that it uses eclipse callisto (there is no
official build for ganymede, or europa), so effectively you have to
use two eclipses one for VE and one for rest of developement.
David Segall
>> Hi,
>> I read on the web that NetBeans is better than Eclipse in designing GUIs.
>> Do you confirm this?
>>
>> Thanks
>
>I like Eclipse's VisualEditor, sometime ago I've tried to switch to
>another editor, but found it impossible. Also it does not need to lock down parts
>of code that you cant edit, you may edit code by hand, and VE is still
>able to work with your changes.
Are you sure or is it just that Eclipse is not tightly integrated with
the Visual Editor and does not know what parts of the generated code
should be protected? It implies that VE can read a Java program and
extract a screen that can be edited in the GUI editor. Although
WindowsBuilder Pro claims this ability I have not seen the same claim
made for the Eclipse Visual Editor. It is certainly not possible with
NetBeans.
jb
No I'm quite sure it works. Basically VE uses lazy init pattern so for
each component you
have pregenerated getter that has following syntax:
JPanel getContentPane(){
if(contentPane==null){
//Initialize content pane
add(getFooComponent(), BorderLayout.CENTER);
}
return contentPane;
}
And inside initialization block you may write whatewer you want,
of course if you break the lazy init pattern by hand VE will not
handle that,
but apart from that you are free.
For example I may by hand change the layout of contentPane and
assuming that my chnages don't cause sume werid RuntimeExceptions
VE will handle this change and I will be able (after change) to change
properties
of the new layout via VE.
With NetBeans (I didn't use it much, just to discover that I like
Eclipse and VE
better) preety much only thing that you can edit inside gui code are
contents of
action methods.
With this pattern VE code is more manageable. (NetBeans uses huuuge
init method that sets up everything).
Karsten Lentzsch
> I read on the web that NetBeans is better than Eclipse in designing GUIs.
> Do you confirm this?
No. Netbeans contains a free visual editor that seems to attract
more people than previous visual tools that shipped with Netbeans.
However, there are downsides with this editor and the layout manager
(GroupLayout) it has been built for.
First, there's the risk of a vendor lock-in, if your designs require
a specific IDE to be maintained now, or more important, in the future.
The underlying GroupLayout is difficult to edit by hand. For the current
GroupLayout there are both free and commercial ports for other IDE;
where my favorite is the one in the JFormDesigner, a great visual tool.
The vast majority in everyday design is based on grids and even more
on grid systems. And this is how humans have designed since the very
beginning of design, thousands of years before. Grids help you find
good design, grid systems can significantly reduce design costs and
increase the design consistency. This becomes more important when the
amount of screens you design increases, and it can turn into a design
success factor if you have over 100 screens.
GroupLayout has no means to benefit from a grid system. It's been
designed to make a single layout good. But if you have more than one
layout, these are not related in GroupLayout. Hence you typically
end up with inconsistent design, and need to repeat the design process
for every individual layout/screen.
How can professional designers create a bus schedule so fast and
with such a high degree of consistency? They follow a meta design
(also: design modules) that in turn is built upon a grid system.
How would a bus schedule look like when built with GroupLayout
and how much would it costs to design every indivisual page?
You can find more information about grids and grid systems in
"Grid systems in graphic design" by Josef Müller-Brockmann and
in "The Graphic Artist and his Design Problems" by the same author.
I provide a presentation about meta design techniques in Swing, see
"Efficient Swing Design" at www.jgoodies.com/articles/
-Karsten
J_Y_C
Having tried both VE and Netbeans for (mainly) AWT development, I have
to say that the GridBagLayout customizer in Netbeans has been a HUGE
time saver.
For swing development, they seem equal to me, but I do MUCH more AWT
than Swing.