Thanks for the response, Andres. That is a wealth of help right there!
About documentation, you have that right. It is still an evolving
technology, that has no easy entry point. I would recommend that your
SVG learning you do it based on the web-developer focus, so that you can
understand how SVG works. (Requires some understanding of JavaScript).
Once you understand how SVG works, the Batik Framework will make more
sense. Good resources fro web-based samples are:
http://www.svgfaq.com/JSGeneral.asp
http://www.carto.net/papers/svg/
I am pretty up to speed on SVG itself. I own two books on it, and have
been studying it for a few years. In addition, I have been doing
graphics in SVG for a while now, so am familiar with it's ins and outs.
I am an animator/artist by training, and the concepts translate very
well from animation to vector graphics. The XML backend is just a bonus!
My own perspective of using SWT-JFace would be to cut down on
development time and make use of a higher level of abstraction to the
Model-View-Controller methodology. SWT brings the added value of native
look and feel and faster gui rendering since it uses native widgets, but
as mentioned before, I consider this should not impact your design
decisions, unless your game will be highly processor intensive, and then
you should question if SVG would be a good fit, since SVG also is very
processor intensive by itself.
In your case, what I understand, is that basically you would like to
benefit from the assets that a RCP can bring to the table so that you
can focus on your particular problem, instead of the nuances of the
underlying programming environment (in this case java). Both RCP
options out there give that to you:
- Robust windowing environment and event management.
- Set of widgets that only require for you to provide the data and the
model. (JFace of Netbeans widgets)
- Modularized development (plugins or cluster modules)
- Simplified deployment options
- Help systems
- Automatic Updating
- Workspace-filesystem managing
etc...
So, (RCP) = (Platform offerings that each project has), correct? Would
that be a bit like jumping into the river with both feet after your
second swimming lesson? I looked them over (them being the docs) for an
hour or two and decided that it was too advanced for my grasp.
I will give them another shot, and maybe the new insight will show me
something I missed the first time. Don't get me wrong. Half of the fun
of all of this is the learning and exploring without the pressure of
deadlines and code reviews you Real Programmers have to deal with!
So basically the big question is: Which will work for you?
Considering that you are not married yet to any specific platform, I
would recommend NetBeans for your project, based on the following:
- Batik relies on Swing-Java2D to work, so your application visual area
will be rendered in Swing, regardless of the underlying platform.
I'm not so sure... There are plugins to display SVG in Eclipse. Now,
mind you, I haven't looked into their implementation, and nor have I
gotten it to work (just installed it yesterday), but it seems to
proclaim itself well on the site.
http://www.dlsc.com/products/svg/svg.html
If I could nail down just how they did this, I think the SWT vs Swing
question would be back under consideration. (Which is basically taking
me back to square one, which I hate because it makes me feel like I am
spinning my wheels.)
- Deployment: NetBeans has included a JNLP deployment option that
creates and signs all your jars, for WebStart deployment.
- GUI Building: the new GUI builder (Matisse)
All good points, but I have read somewhere that the new GUI builders for
Eclipse are well-formed and (so they say) easier to use and such. The
Netbeans implementation warns that editting guarded areas of the code
for customization can lead to breaking the GUI abilities. This may very
well change in 5.0, I cannot remember if I read that in the roadmap or not.
The Eclipse Visual Editor and Graphical Editting Framework seem (again)
to be aimed at extension development within the Platform from what I can
tell. Not really towards from-scratch App development. I may be wrong
here, however.
All in all, I don't really care which I use. I just need to start up
with one (been using/researching Eclipse mostly, but not married to it)
and get working. So this is all great insight to be hearing.
- Now, the cons of Netbeans RCP are:
- less documentation, smaller active community.
- Relies purely on Swing, but does a terrific job of isolating the
developer from the pains of core Swing development.
- Still in Beta stage (v5.0)
So to sum up:
Batik on Swing, not in SWT/Jface.
Use the Netbeans Platform to base the system on, expand from there.
I have the O'Reilly book on Netbeans, but I fear it may be a bit out of
date (based on 3.x). I'll investigate on that and start reading up.
Now, do not take me wrong, if Eclipse did not have the SWT-AWT problem,
I would go with it, simply because my job as a developer would be
simpler based on the fact that there is a lot more documentation. But,
also, I have been impressed with what the folks at NetBeans have done
with this new release (both of the IDE and the RCP).
Some good reading for NetBeans RCP:
http://www.planetnetbeans.org/
http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Netbeans/NetBeansDeveloperFAQ
A few more, for the benefit of the list:
http://platform.netbeans.org/guide/tutorials/paintTutorial/index.html
http://www.ociweb.com/jnb/jnbSep2005.html
No confusion here, just more confirmation of what I have gleaned on my
own from the outside. Thanks tons.
John
BlackRookSix of OpenWarSim
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