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Scott, Gregg, All of the Ranchers: Need help on my life.

 
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Today I lose my job.Because I can't finish assinment in time.What a tragic day!
Now let me begin my story. I'm from China,last year gratuatted from college.In college I spent too much time on football, so my programming skill enhanced little.From Apr 2004 to Feb 2005, I worked in a telecom company in WuHan,a lovely city beyond YangZi-River.I get the job using Swing to design GUI.I spent a lot of time to learn java,I've read books like Thinking in java, Core Java II, Java Tutorial,I began to familar with componets in Swing, do some working with them.After half a year, I'm cofident to myself, so I come to a more competive company in ShangHai. When worked for a month, the leader told me,"We request you to be more efficient, What have you done this month?".I'm so depressed.This week I
can't write anything,I even feel not suitable to this job.But I do love this job.I want to design wonderful GUI.I'll send in my resignation this week.I'll have a new begin.That's the end.Thank you for listenning.I feel a little well.Now I've some questions confused me a long time.

1 Our GUI looks urgly, is this only because of Look and Feel? We desigen our GUI only use Swing,Do we need some free packages? Where to get them? Maybe I should ask in another way: Wondeful GUI = Swing + .. + .. ?

2 When you write GUI, do you design it in an IDE or write the code line by line? Last month I designed my GUI in the JBuilder, for a lot of them I used XYLayout,is this a right choice?

3 I don't know what my job carear looks like.For now I just want to write the wonderful GUI with java.Would you give me some suggestions on how to enhance my programming skill?

Oh my poor eglish! I hope I expressed my idea clearly.

Thanks.
[ April 06, 2005: Message edited by: Loius Wan ]
 
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In response to your questions.

1. Having a GUI that looks nice involves a number of things. First an foremost it is about laying out components in a usable manner. Do you need a combo box? Three radio buttons, or a blank text field and the user simply has to enter a value? I'd recommend checking out books such a GUI Bloopers to give you ideas on laying out user interfaces in a friendly manner

http://web-bloopers.com/gui-bloopers/

In addition to layout a good portion of your applications appreance is defined by the look and feel it uses. Many people find Sun's Metal look and feel unappealing. I'd suggest using the native look and feel for the OS. If you'd like something cross platform, there are a few commercial solutions such as Incors Alloy as well as free open source look and feels such as JGoodies Looks. A quick Google search will turn them up. I'll also plug my blog

http://www.clientjava.com

I've put links up to over 1100 desktop java related resources, projects, articles, and blog posts over the last 9 months or so. Going back through the archives will provide you with a number of resources.

2. I think GUI Builders are great intially while you are learning layout or if you need to crank out a quick form that isn't going to be modified much. However, I'm a big fan of using GUI builder classes in conjunction with layout managers to programatically attack layout out forms. There are a number of good open source layout managers as alternatives to the ones included with Java. Examples include JGoodies FormLayout and TableLayout by Daniel Barbalace.

3. In terms of upping your programming skill, I would just try to be as aware of everything related to your craft as possible. Read pattern books. Get an RSS reader and start checking out blogs on a daily basis. Also keep reading the posts here, on Java.net, JavaLobby and other forums even if you don't have a specific question. I've learned as much if not more about application development after school as I did in school. The more you read, the more you know of already. Then when a question comes up like "How do we add validation to your application?" you will have an idea of where to start looking for answers.
 
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>For now I just want to write the wonderful GUI with java.
>Would you give me some suggestions on how to enhance my programming skill?

From some of your posts it seems you're working on a GUI with a JTable.

I'd suggest doing a search of javaranch for the phrase 'new JTable'.
All hits will probably include sample code, quite often compilable, runnable programs.
Copy/paste/compile/run ALL of the ones you find - if they look good, try to
work out how they do what they do.
If lucky, you might find some code you can adapt into your own program.
If nothing else, the research you do now will pay dividends later on

Good luck
 
Qunfeng Wang
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Thank you for your help.
Scott, you shed light on my head.Your suggestion helps me a lot.Now I know what I haven't known. I think I should work harder,keep in touch with the world outside,meanwhile practice my eglish.Oh, you want to know what I've done last year! Well, I spent time reading books more than coding.I've used most of Swing componets in my work.But my code loos urgly. This month I write something I proud of.One is JavaHelp,Becasue I'am the first one in my company to know it.Thanks to JavaRanch, I find it here.Another is Table Print, not in the JDK1.5.I caculate the position, then draw the table with my code.Oh,Another thing! A MultiLineCellRender,it works well in JDK1.5,but urgly in JDk1.4,if necessary I will paste the code later.
Also Michael Dunn , thank you for your kindness.It's a good method for me.

Now I'm confident in my new job.I'll use java to creat wonderful GUI!
 
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Originally posted by Loius Wan:


2 When you write GUI, do you design it in an IDE or write the code line by line? Last month I designed my GUI in the JBuilder, for a lot of them I used XYLayout,is this a right choice?



A suggestion in this regard.. try to avoid using XYLayout in JBuilder as it is a proprietary layout. You might face some portability issus later. There is no problem with writing code using IDE's as long as you know what you are doing and what the IDE is doing for you.

In order to make your GUI look good, try to follow some gui design instructions. One of them can be found here

The only thing that will help you improve your java skills is practice...keep practising and experimenting and you'll learn a lot.

Hope I helped!
[ April 07, 2005: Message edited by: Ashish Chopra ]
 
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Loius Wan

I am sorry to hear about all your troubles as of late. However, it seems that you have picked yourself up and moved right along to something good. That is very commendable and I admire your ability to adapt and make things work for you. Good job!! If I can be of any help with anything, just let me know.
 
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I'll second Scott's recommendation of GUI Bloopers. I wish more programmers would read it.

- Jeff
 
Qunfeng Wang
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Wow!
When I open my IE this morning,I see so many wonderful replies!I quickly go to Principles of good GUI Design Ashish told me.Wow!A good guideline!
Gregg,in our China there is a good old saying:Nothing so bad but might be a blessing.Sorry, I can't express this idiom correctly in english.Now let me tell you the story.Long ago there was an old man.He had a big horse.One day the horse run away.The neighbors all felt pity for him.But he said,maybe there was a good gain.Sevral days later,the horse came back, along with a lot of wild horses.For now I 've got so much usful information.I think I was the lucky old man.
Jeff,yesterday I read a sample chapter on the web.It's a good book.But this book have not introduced to China. What a pity!
Thank you for all your help sincerely.Now I think I get the key to desigen good GUI in java.I'm also confident.When I counter problems in work, I'll come here.When I get success, I'll come here to share with you of my pleasure.
Thanks.
 
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