[Springframework-developer] spring-rcp project

[Keith D. <kd...@cs...>]

There are several things initially I'd like to see the spring-rcp =
project will provide:

- A way to build configurable, GUI-standards following Swing =
applications faster by leveraging the Spring container and a rich =
library of UI factories and support classes.

More specfically right now I have:
- A core action framework that allows for centralized configuration of =
Swing actions and appropriate handler registration based on the current =
active view.  Action configuration -- as well as action contribution =
policies (to menus/toolbars), can be defined externally to the code as =
Spring bean declarations.
- Multiple window support/management, page configuration, and view =
management.  The ideas here are very much based on Eclipse's =
perspective/view concepts.  Currently views can be defined in the Spring =
container, associated with one or more pages, and a default page can be =
configured to load at startup.
- Common support classes for various rich client requirements including: =
dialogs, wizards, input validation, button bars, internationalization, =
image/icon caching, progress monitoring, UI threading (aka classes =
promoting responsive UIs), tree table/property sheet, table =
sorting/high-volume table updates, GUI standards helpers, help/about, =
etc.
- Some basic support for persisting UI state and UI preferences (needs =
to be developed further.)

I hope this provides some good background info on the project.  I see it =
adding the most value to people needing to develop Swing applications =
and do so in a way that promotes consistent, well-designed, configurable =
Swing applications.  IMO Swing is more mature than Eclipse/SWT -- and =
does some things better (for example, JTables can scale much better than =
SWT tables.)  I also think the old days of Swing apps 'not looking =
native' and not being performant or web-accessible are gone with JDK =
1.4.2 and 1.5 and webstart.  The main issue I see with Swing is there =
are a limited number of higher-level abstractions/frameworks out there =
that assist in making the toolkit simpler & easier to use, and a limited =
number of design best practices.  The the goal of spring-rcp is to =
provide that.

Project dependencies to date:
- commons-lang
- jgoodies-forms
- TableLayout
- Spring (obviously) :-)

Keith