Hi Andrus, Gave the updated CM a quick tour and it looks good so far. I'll do a bit more testing later.
Two notes: When you talked about Java 21 on User, you weren't kidding. I had Java 25 and it will not build with it. Had to re-install 21 to try it. Seems the model files upgrade is still done on the filesystem instead of in memory, so you have to revert 4.x model files (hopefully you have them in Git/etc) after loading into 5.x CM. Is there a reason the upgrades aren't done in-memory so you don't mangle the original version? Thanks, mrg On Mon, Apr 20, 2026 at 10:24 AM Andrus Adamchik <[email protected]> wrote: > So I feel like the advent of agentic coding opens up new possibilities for > CayenneModeler. While some want you to think you can simply prompt Claude > to "Rewrite CayenneModeler in JavaFX" (or Electron or JetBrains Compose > Multiplatform), still with our limited resources, building and supporting > an entirely new thing is realistically out of reach. > > But I think we can take the current Swing app to a new level by augmenting > our rusty Swing skills with AI. A few of my experiments adding this or that > UI piece were mostly successful. A few idea on top of my mind: > > 1. A built-in MCP server for DB Import and CGen. This is to close the loop > on agentic coding, allowing to use both of these tools from an agent CLI. > (The MCP idea was what prompted me to look into this to begin with) > 2. Fix table editors UX (selections conflicting with cell editors) > 3. Write unit tests > 4. Modernizing L&F. Not sure how far we can get while staying in Swing, > but worth a try. Looking at FlatLaf lib, which is a successor of JGoodies > that we already use > 5. Implement dozens of small usability features (such as showing currently > selected Obj|DbEntity in tab view headers, etc.) > > My first pass (about 70% done) was not anything visual, but rather > refactoring the existing messy code to rid it of various architectural > experiments accumulated over the years (such as auto-bindings) and unifying > the MVC structure to be as close as possible to vanilla Swing. Ironically, > Claude was not that helpful in this process. It was good old IDE > refactoring, manually going through hundreds of files chasing dead code and > inconsistencies. > > Anyways, just putting this on the radar. > > Andrus
