Hello,
Fred Swartz who teaches at the University of
Maryland has created more than 300 pages of Java Notes
including a special note titled "Java GUI
Alternatives" that introduces the XUL philosophy.
Fred writes:
It isn't all that hard to build a Graphical User
Interface (GUI) in Java, but it is hard to get
something that is easy to work on as the program gets
larger. Many styles of GUI programming simply don't
scale well.
Some GUI programming alternatives
---------------------------------
1. Code the GUI in Java with the logic and
interface mixed.
This is a typical style for small student programs.
The code to perform the action of a button is in the
button's action lietener. This does NOT scale well as
programs get bigger.
2. Code the GUI in Java, but separate the logic.
As programs grow larger, it's essential to separate
the GUI interface processing from the logic. This is
easy to do by putting the interface and logic in
separate classes. The GUI generators below are another
way to accomplish this.
3. Use Drag and Drop GUI editors.
Many IDEs (NetBeans, Eclipse (only SWT), JBuilder,
...) have GUI editors and there are also numerous
standalone products. They don't always enforce
separation of interface and logic, but it's usually
easy to do.
4. Use Flash or JavaScript+HTML for the GUI.
Why should your interface be in Java? You can use
existing GUI technologies like Flash or
JavaScript+HTML (check out Sun's LiveConnect, which
should already be installed with your version of Java)
to interact with your Java program.
5. Describe the GUI in some other language (eg,
XML).
This approach is described below in the XUL (XML
User interface Language) philosophy.
The XUL philosophy
------------------
Everyone says that interfaces should be separated
from the logic of the program, and one of the most
promising approaches is to represent the GUI in a
markup language (think HTML forms with a full set of
widgets). The Mozilla XUL group (check out XML User
Interface Language (XUL) Links has been one of the
most active in proposals in this area, altho the
actual offerings don't seem quite ready for prime time
(eg, Luxor).
I've tried SwiXML and Thinlet, both of which read an
XML file to build the GUI at execution time. On small
test programs I really liked them. They're not quite
mature yet (eg, weak documentation), and are both
reportedly coming out with new versions soon. I'm
looking forward to seriously trying SwixML when
version 2 with better layout support appears.
Microsoft has announced XAML, an XML description of
user interfaces (and much more) for the upcoming
"Avalon" system (see below). It looks like Microsoft
may take the lead in this area; and I wouldn't be
surprised if their work sets the future direction.
Full story @
http://leepoint.net/notes-java/30GUI/95misc/80gui-generator.html
- Gerald
PS: Let us know your experience with Java toolkits
that use the XUL philosohpy. I invite you to post your
war stories from the trenches to the xul-talk
mailinglist.
-------------------------------------------------------
This SF.Net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials
Free Linux tutorial presented by Daniel Robbins, President and CEO of
GenToo technologies. Learn everything from fundamentals to system
administration.http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1470&alloc_id=3638&op=click
_______________________________________________
xul-announce mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/xul-announce
