For Eric and Dan: Swing -> SWT

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Hello,

Assuming I have some GUI Swing application (GUI JavaBean editor - some properties and some presentation of JavaBean), and I would like to convert this application to be an Eclipse plugin.

Is there any feasible way to do this (I mean to convert existing Swing app to Eclipse plugin)? Can be Eclipse plugin written with Swing library? Or is there any "adapter" library to utilize existing Swing applications in Eclipse ?

Sorry for maybe stupid question, this is new for me....

regards,
MZ

[Ilja Preuss]

Yes, you can use Swing inside Eclipse plugins.

[Eric Clayberg]

Assuming I have some GUI Swing application (GUI JavaBean editor - some properties and some presentation of JavaBean), and I would like to convert this application to be an Eclipse plugin. Is there any feasible way to do this (I mean to convert existing Swing app to Eclipse plugin)? Can be Eclipse plugin written with Swing library? Or is there any "adapter" library to utilize existing Swing applications in Eclipse ?

Yes. You can use the Eclipse SWT_AWT bridge to run Swing widgets within an Eclipse view or editor.

Another alternative might be to use SwingWT which provides an implementation of Swing on top of SWT.

Yet another possibility would be to convert your Swing code into SWT code using the Swing to SWT (S2S) conversion tool (I have not used this tool).

[Barry Andrews]

I would say that you would not want to use Swing inside SWT because it will not look good. You can use the appropriate look and feel for the platform to try and make it match SWT, but it's just not going to look quite the same.

[Mikalai Zaikin]

Thank you for clarification !

[Ko Ko Naing]

Originally posted by Eric Clayberg:

Yes. You can use the Eclipse SWT_AWT bridge to run Swing widgets within an Eclipse view or editor.

Another alternative might be to use SwingWT which provides an implementation of Swing on top of SWT.

Yet another possibility would be to convert your Swing code into SWT code using the Swing to SWT (S2S) conversion tool (I have not used this tool).

I'm not using that Swing to SWT (S2S) converstion tool... It's not open source and we need to pay for that... I am currently and gradually migrating my Swing appications to pure SWT, which is the best approach to take advantage of SWT performance, I guess...

Just my 2 cents...

[Alexandru Popescu]

Originally posted by Ko Ko Naing:


I'm not using that Swing to SWT (S2S) converstion tool... It's not open source and we need to pay for that... I am currently and gradually migrating my Swing appications to pure SWT, which is the best approach to take advantage of SWT performance, I guess...

Just my 2 cents...

It mostly depends on the volume/costs of work involved. I believe an automatic tool is not 100% guaranteed (keeping in mind that the 2 solutions are quiet different), but it may save a lot of hours. You can afterwards concentrate on the important migration stuff.

my 2cents come from 3 years of development in/with migration world ;-).

./pope

[somkiat puisungnoen]

Originally posted by Ilja Preuss:
Yes, you can use Swing inside Eclipse plugins.

Swing Designer


Vistual Editor Project
[ October 01, 2004: Message edited by: somkiat puisungnoen ]