Besides usual development tools like IDEs, I have SQuirreL open right now, a Swing app. The support team for our group use Peregrine Service Client, an Eclipse-based product. Cisco VPN software still tends to be downloaded through an applet when you connect to the VPN server.
My previous company continues to use a Swing app as the viewer for the security cameras they produce, including recording the video an operator looks at when handling alarms, doing a kind of binary search to find when something appeared or disappeared, burning footage to CD/DVD for evidence. They also use an applet based on the same codebase and that doesn't cause as many problems as you might imagine. I can still knock out a usable Swing application in less than half the time and fuss it takes a typical web developer, and with some effort it can even look good. I tend to do that for small tools that support staff use etc., but written in such a way that it should not be difficult to convert to a webapp if that's ever needed. I think that compared to other desktop technologies Swing remains competitive, though .NET tends to be slightly more responsive. The C/C++ libraries like GTK and Qt are doing well and gaining penetration outside of their native Linux but I wouldn't recommend them for anything that those languages don't give any benefits for. On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 4:09 PM, Fabrizio Giudici <[email protected]> wrote: > In this mailing list the assertion "nobody uses Java on the desktop" > frequently appears. Taken as a general statement, it is false: the industry > uses lots of Java on the desktop. But, agreeing to restrict the assertion to > the usage of end users on the web, it's reasonable. I usually even agree > with this latter interpretation. > > But sometimes there's a little evidence that "nobody" is an exaggerated term > even in this interpretation. For instance, the latest bunch of Java 6 -> > Java 7 upgrades is triggering problems where you won't expect: end users on > the web, the thing that shouldn't exist. For instance: > > 1. I've just learned that the U.S. judiciary system uses Java for uploading > documents: e.g. https://ecf.cadc.uscourts.gov/ > 2. Italian business consultants must use Java in various way to upload > documents, e.g. signed ones: > http://forum.commercialistatelematico.com/altri-argomenti/53284-problemi-con-firma-comunica-per-colpa-di-java.html > (sorry, this obviously is in italian) > 3. I've read in a mailing list of a developer who updated to Java 7 on Mac > OS X, and then the *applet* used by his home banking service broke. > > (I'm excluding partial uses, such as applets used to upload files in a > number of web sites, as they are just a minor part of the functions of the > site and usually there's a HTML-only alternative). > > > Clearly, these aren't tons of uses. But definitely more than nothing. > Of course, if Java keeps on creating troubles when upgrading, the number > will eventually drop to zero. But so far, it isn't. > > > > -- > Fabrizio Giudici - Java Architect @ Tidalwave s.a.s. > "We make Java work. Everywhere." > http://tidalwave.it/fabrizio/blog - [email protected] > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Java Posse" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
