I would not say often .. but otherwise yes. Sure. I would suggest to look
for alternative before you going exploring 
about JNA, com4j, jinvoke or whatever else there is out there. 

And also be prepared to do a fair bit of C/C++ coding or at least interface
reading and translating. If you are into that..

Good for it. I personally look away in pain ;-)

manfred

On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:51:00 -0800 (PST), Casper Bang
<[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Java is great for the cross platform experience, but you often run
> into something you can't do in Java. Example: Just the other day,
> someone asked about doing a NetBeans plugin to record screencasts. I
> started a project like this in the past, but after realizing the
> java.awt.Robot is horribly slow (it allocates a new buffer for each
> grab) and has no way to record with the cursor (and even no way to
> uptain the cursor such as to draw it on during post-processing),
> inevitably you are going to need some JNI and that's a worse
> experience than having a root canal. Perhaps that's why there is a
> ratio of 100:1 between web frameworks and actual useful stand-alone
> application in Java.
> 
> /Casper
> 
> On Jan 20, 7:56 pm, <[email protected]> wrote:
>> I would actually reverse the question. Why do you want to lock yourself
>> into one operating system only when you can run on a whole bunch
> provided
>> all the stuff you needs exists in Java (quite likely unless you have
> some
>> Windows legacy that pin you down to Windows).
>>
>> If you are stuck with Windows but want to use Java there are a couple of
>> integrations with COM and friends possible but you are putting yourself
>> into a land of pain..
>>
>> manfred
>>
>> On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 05:07:00 -0800 (PST),
> "[email protected]"
>>
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> > Hi Alan,
>>
>> > It sounds like you are targeting the Windows platform only and you
>> > need tight integration into that platform, so I guess the obvious
>> > question no-one has asked yet is why do you want to create a Java
>> > application and not a native one? Understanding your motives for using
>> > Java would help ensure you get the right advice (right tool for the
>> > job and all that)!
>>
>> > Cheers,
>>
>> > Craig.
>>
>> > On Jan 20, 8:34 am, Steven Herod <[email protected]> wrote:
>> >> I think deploying a Windows application on Window's often isn't that
>> >> easy :o)  Once you get into deploying data access stuff and so on
> you
>> >> wind up nearly having to upgrade the users PC.   At least a java app
>> >> is (almost) an unzip the files and go thing (once that pesky JRE is
>> >> installed).
>>
>> >> Eclipse RCP goes along way towards giving a native experience with
>> >> lots of value add services, but its a pretty hefty elephant to
> tackle.
>>
>> >> JavaFX isn't going to help you, not for doing a traditional desktop
>> >> app, it has little in the way of layout managers, data entry controls
>> >> (they are just wrapped Swing controls - and even then, not all of
>> >> them), and is mainly aimed at graphical stuff (I know, I've been
>> >> building a Twitter client in JavaFX for the past 5 weeks).
>>
>> >> For doing alot of the plumbing on installation, check out Advanced
>> >> Installer by Caphyon(?), it will turn a java app into a .exe, create
>> >> shorts cuts, install services, and deploy a JRE.  It also has a
>> >> command line executable you can script into your builds. And its
>> >> relatively inexpensive (for a company to purchase).
>>
>> >> On Jan 20, 3:18 pm, Alan Kent <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> >> > While no Java 7, there has been lots of new stuff like Java update
> 10,
>> >> > the new applet plug-in, the new deployment options, JavaFX and so
> on.
>> >  
>> >> >  From what I understand is available, I think I still cannot do a
>> > good
>> >> > native Windows application easily in Java alone.  For example:
>>
>> >> >     * I want some part of the code to start up when the machine
>> > reboots
>> >> >       (a background service - no UI)
>> >> >     * I want to access some C/C++ APIs exposed via DLLs (is JNI
>> > still
>> >> >       the solution of choice here?  Do signed DLLs help with
>> > deployment
>> >> >       options?)
>> >> >     * I want to use Java - do I need to supply a JRE or is there
> a
>> >> >       standard way to find (and require) a locally installed one
> of
>> > a
>> >> >       particular release level?
>>
>> >> > I think the real challenge is doing all of the above at the same
> time.
>>
>> >> > My understanding is I can (probably):
>>
>> >> >     * Use the new deployment stuff (JNLP?) to get my Java code
> onto
>> > the
>> >> >       desktop, requiring a certain JRE level be available and in
> my
>> > path
>> >> >     * Use JNI to talk to native platform DLLs, then sign a JNI
>> > packaged
>> >> >       bundle to allow it to be downloaded and run via the above
>> >> >       deployment option
>> >> >     * Use something like 'Wrapper' to allow my program to start
> up
>> > at
>> >> >       machine reboot
>>
>> >> > It just is not yet clear I can easily develop and write an entire
>> >> > Windows application purely in Java without having to worry about
> lots
>> > of
>> >> > plumbing.  I want some code running at machine reboot in the
>> > background,
>> >> > and some code when the user runs a program (with a pretty UI on the
>> >> > front).  Does JavaFX enable complete desktop Java applications to
> be
>> >> > developed and deployed in practice?  (I think the need to talk to
>> > some
>> >> > DLLs adds a real problem here - and yes, it is mandatory to the
>> >> > application I am looking at.)
>>
>> >> > Currently I am thinking I probably need a EXE to wrap the Java
>> > program,
>> >> > with a standard Windows installer as a result.  So if you want to
>> > write
>> >> > a Windows application integrating with the OS reasonably well, you
>> >> > cannot just write Java code - you have to do more.  I am hoping I
> am
>> > wrong!
>>
>> >> > Thanks!
>> >> > Alan
> 

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