Re: [Geotools-devel] use of swing

[Jody G. <jga...@re...>]

Hi Amy:

The reason SWT and JFace comes into this discussion is because of the 
http://udig.refractions.net/ (a desktop application built with 
GeoTools). We used SWT and JFace because that is what the Eclipse RCP 
platform uses (and our users liked the result better - even though I am 
more comfortable hacking with Swing).

Swing is great, and the only choice for an applet - there is nothing in 
the GeoTools code base that is SWT specific (indeed you will find more 
Swing code in the library then otherwise).  If you want to go pure 
server have a look at MapBuilder, OpenLayers and either GeoServer (which 
is GeoTools based) or MapServer.

Cheers,
Jody


> I have what I hope is a reasonable question:
>
> Why SWT with JFace? Is there some reason that combination works well? 
> The reason I'm asking is because I am starting to work on building a web 
> version of what I created in Swing, and I'm not sure of the best 
> approach. I want to skip past Applets and have something running server 
> side if possible.
>
> Amy
>
>
> Matthias Basler wrote:
>   
>> Andrea Aime wrote:
>>
>>   
>>     
>>>> 1. Building widgets for Swing AND SWT at the same time did turn out
>>>> to be much more work than I expected. Almost no chance of sharing any
>>>> code...
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> And it makes sense to build one for Swing and not for SWT in my opinion.
>>> Why? Because if you're targeting SWT you'll probably want to use
>>> uDig plugins to build your software anyways... the level of reuse would
>>> be higher. It's hard to find fure SWT/JFace apps around, most are really
>>> using the RCP (Azureus is one of the most notable exceptions).
>>>     
>>>       
>> I do see a need to build SWT/JFace widgets as well - for two reasons:
>>
>> 1. uDig is missing some widgets, most notably a widget for simplyfing the creation of more complex SLD styles and for more convenient CRS selection/assembly (I have created the latter one.)
>>
>> 2. Although most people interested in SWT/JFace would probably start extending uDig, this is not always true. Some might just want to use a few of it's widgets and create a different kind of GIS app from them, because uDig does not fit their needs or because they already have an application that just misses spatial support. For example, as the uDig team has itself noted, uDig doesn't have a "GIS viewer" and is overdesigned if you just need a view to show some spatial data in you own app. This is something that could imho addressed if there were a separate map display widget equivalent to the JMapPane.
>>
>>
>>   
>>     
>>>> - Should it support
>>>> only Geotools or should it support other GIS libraries via an
>>>> additional layer of abstraction? 
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> No... too much rope, you end up hanging yourself.
>>>     
>>>       
>> Exactly my experience... ;-)
>>
>>   
>>     
>>> I'd say, take GO-1 as an inspiration, but a spec like GO-1 does not
>>> make much sense in my opinion... what do you interoperate with? Nothing.
>>> So there's no point in having a standard, whilst it's useful to have
>>> a reference design to help you develop your own way of solving the
>>> problem.
>>>     
>>>       
>> Agree.
>>
>>   
>>     
>>>> 5. Different goals. I am geared towars a desktop GIS and image
>>>> processing, GeoTools/uDig still has its priority in WebGIS (OGC) and
>>>> vector data.
>>>>       
>>>>         
>>> OGC yes, vector data... hum... have a look at what the 2.3.x branch
>>> and Simone and Alessio work can do and be amazed :-)
>>>     
>>>       
>> Yes, this is on my list of things to try out.
>>
>>   
>>     
>>> Hmm... just to add to your rant, I'd say that we need an uDig
>>> competitor, even a small one, to fuel the development of anything swing
>>> related (by small, I mean something that does not aim to be a platform,
>>> but just an app). Developer of the Swing components should eat their own
>>> dog food by using it in a real app, otherwise it becomes just an
>>> "academic" effort.
>>>     
>>>       
>> I fully agree.
>>   
>>     
>
>
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