Home » Archived » Visual Editor (VE) » Is the Visual Editor going in the wrong direction?
| Is the Visual Editor going in the wrong direction? [message #144514] |
Wed, 16 April 2008 10:38  |
Eclipse User |
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Originally posted by: eli_lato.hotmail.com
I use the VE to build Swing screens. Each time that I want to do something that I think is simple, obvious, and trivial, I hit a wall of technical trivia. For example, I want to make a property editor that displays a modal Swing dialog. STOP! So far as I can tell, I have to extend VE with a plugin to do something this simple. And I have to learn SWT on top of that! I'm sure that there's a great reason for me to have to learn SWT, but it doesn't help me get my work done.
I've read Gili Mendel's "custom widget" articles on customizing VE. They look as if they were brain teasers for nerds. With all due respect for universality, compatibility, and academic rigor, this approach does not help a developer do a day's work.
We may be able to borrow a solution to this problem from Java's approach. Java has classes that handle universality. For example formatters handle Object to String conversions. But these formatters were a nuisance for everyday work, so someone wrote SimpleDateFormat. Can the VE use this approach?- give us a solution that may not be universal, but that works for most of us. VE succeeds in its universality, but not in its usefulness.
You can answer that I'm too dumb to handle the complexity that VE demands. You may be right, but I'm probably not the only dummy out there. All I need a flexible, Swing-oriented tool, and I don't have the time to learn all the technical details of extension points.
David Perez's recent post implied that a lot of people are looking elsewhere for a visual editor. That's a shame, but it isn't surprising.
Are there any plans to make VE more useful for Swing developers?
Alternatively, has anyone written plugins that take the difficulty out of customizing VE?
Thanks,
Eli
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| Re: Is the Visual Editor going in the wrong direction? [message #144697 is a reply to message #144514] |
Wed, 23 April 2008 00:40  |
 Yves YANG
Messages: 688
Registered: July 2009 |
Senior Member |
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You don't need to extend VE to create a Dialog. You need to call the wizard
to create a Visual subclass of JDialog..
Please keep in mind that VE is a GUI tool for java developer. It is not a
Presentation Framework.
best regards
Yves YANG
"Eli Lato" <eli_lato@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:22801701.49401208342363556.JavaMail.root@cp1.dzone.com...
>I use the VE to build Swing screens. Each time that I want to do something
>that I think is simple, obvious, and trivial, I hit a wall of technical
>trivia. For example, I want to make a property editor that displays a modal
>Swing dialog. STOP! So far as I can tell, I have to extend VE with a plugin
>to do something this simple. And I have to learn SWT on top of that! I'm
>sure that there's a great reason for me to have to learn SWT, but it
>doesn't help me get my work done.
>
> I've read Gili Mendel's "custom widget" articles on customizing VE. They
> look as if they were brain teasers for nerds. With all due respect for
> universality, compatibility, and academic rigor, this approach does not
> help a developer do a day's work.
>
> We may be able to borrow a solution to this problem from Java's approach.
> Java has classes that handle universality. For example formatters handle
> Object to String conversions. But these formatters were a nuisance for
> everyday work, so someone wrote SimpleDateFormat. Can the VE use this
> approach?- give us a solution that may not be universal, but that works
> for most of us. VE succeeds in its universality, but not in its
> usefulness.
>
> You can answer that I'm too dumb to handle the complexity that VE demands.
> You may be right, but I'm probably not the only dummy out there. All I
> need a flexible, Swing-oriented tool, and I don't have the time to learn
> all the technical details of extension points.
>
> David Perez's recent post implied that a lot of people are looking
> elsewhere for a visual editor. That's a shame, but it isn't surprising.
>
> Are there any plans to make VE more useful for Swing developers?
> Alternatively, has anyone written plugins that take the difficulty out of
> customizing VE?
>
> Thanks,
> Eli
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| Re: Is the Visual Editor going in the wrong direction? [message #144704 is a reply to message #144697] |
Thu, 24 April 2008 17:10 |
| Eclipse User |
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Originally posted by: eli_lato.hotmail.com
That sounds great! I saw elsewhere an example of someone using New -> Other -> Visual... But in my Eclipse 3.2.2, I don't see it. (In fact, in my Eclipse, I don't even see how to open the Visual Editor.)
Would you please give me more specifics for creating a PropertyEditor that can throw up a Dialog?
1 Do I set up my editor with:
propertyDescriptor.setPropertyEditorClass(MyPropertyEditor.c lass);
or with:
PropertyEditorSupport.getCustomEditor()
2 Do I display my Dialog in MyPropertyEditor, or in customEditor?
3 Is my dialog an AWT dialog, an SWT dialog, or a Swing JDialog?
Thanks,
Eli
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| Re: Is the Visual Editor going in the wrong direction? [message #617104 is a reply to message #144514] |
Wed, 23 April 2008 00:40 |
Yves YANG
Messages: 688
Registered: July 2009 |
Senior Member |
|
|
You don't need to extend VE to create a Dialog. You need to call the wizard
to create a Visual subclass of JDialog..
Please keep in mind that VE is a GUI tool for java developer. It is not a
Presentation Framework.
best regards
Yves YANG
"Eli Lato" <eli_lato@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:22801701.49401208342363556.JavaMail.root@cp1.dzone.com...
>I use the VE to build Swing screens. Each time that I want to do something
>that I think is simple, obvious, and trivial, I hit a wall of technical
>trivia. For example, I want to make a property editor that displays a modal
>Swing dialog. STOP! So far as I can tell, I have to extend VE with a plugin
>to do something this simple. And I have to learn SWT on top of that! I'm
>sure that there's a great reason for me to have to learn SWT, but it
>doesn't help me get my work done.
>
> I've read Gili Mendel's "custom widget" articles on customizing VE. They
> look as if they were brain teasers for nerds. With all due respect for
> universality, compatibility, and academic rigor, this approach does not
> help a developer do a day's work.
>
> We may be able to borrow a solution to this problem from Java's approach.
> Java has classes that handle universality. For example formatters handle
> Object to String conversions. But these formatters were a nuisance for
> everyday work, so someone wrote SimpleDateFormat. Can the VE use this
> approach?- give us a solution that may not be universal, but that works
> for most of us. VE succeeds in its universality, but not in its
> usefulness.
>
> You can answer that I'm too dumb to handle the complexity that VE demands.
> You may be right, but I'm probably not the only dummy out there. All I
> need a flexible, Swing-oriented tool, and I don't have the time to learn
> all the technical details of extension points.
>
> David Perez's recent post implied that a lot of people are looking
> elsewhere for a visual editor. That's a shame, but it isn't surprising.
>
> Are there any plans to make VE more useful for Swing developers?
> Alternatively, has anyone written plugins that take the difficulty out of
> customizing VE?
>
> Thanks,
> Eli
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