Re: Java programmer lured back by .Net (Questions)

Hi John,

Swing (or SWT for that matter) is simply not ready for prime tiume despite the hype. Don't get me started on JNLP either ...
Basically the Java lobby is spending all its efforts on the server side (which is a good thing), but losing the battle on the desktop.

Java has been around for years, and yet still a novice can spot a Java app running on Windows a mile away. Talking about Eclipse - have you seen how it suddenly seems to go to sleep on you (and it uses SWT) - I don't remeber any windows program behaving like that. The point is Bill Gates is a pretty smart guy. He rules absolutely supreme on the Windows platform. Untill Java (or someone else) gives him something to worry about, developers/ISVs who want to build professional looking code that competes on an equal footing with native Win32 applications is simply going to have to use windows (it they have more of a businsess brain than a techie brain) - if even unfortunately (like in my case), I have to maintain two code branches - but if you can't beat them, join them.

B

PS: Of course, you *can* build some applications that try to look like Windows (using JGoodies and the like), but a novice VB programmer on his first day at work will be far much more productive than a Java programmer with several years SWING experience. I could go on and on.. and point you to several Urls (even Java is asking why developers don't deploy SWING apps - check the sun.java site). Basically SWING *currently sucks - and I'll be dammned if I'm going to conceed any ground to my competitors on the Windows platform - just because I think SWING/SWT is the way of the future. Have you seen those crazy, scary dialogue boxes that come up when you try to install an app using Web start? - whose bright idea was that anyway?. basically, for serious windows apps, we've got to go and nestle at the teat of the great guy - he's got us where he wants and theres not a great deal we can do about it at the mement - since the tools are the most productive on his platform ...



Jon Skeet [C# MVP] wrote:

Beatrice Rutger <brutger@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I guess I was a little peeved because I have to maintain two branches of code - just because Java has not got its act together yet on the desktop side - despite all the years of promise. 


<snip>

Have you tried looking at SWT? As a good example, I find Eclipse is one of the nicest desktop apps I use day-in, day-out. (I gather Swing has improved significantly in terms of performance over the years, and every time I use Windows Forms I long for the layout management options of Java...)

By the way, I wouldn't be so convinced that using your own classloaders and downloading files over the network will keep your code away from prying eyes. It doesn't take much work at all to use a different version of java.lang.ClassLoader which dumps out every class it loads...


.

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