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SWT-Designer instantiations [message #95049]

Tue, 28 June 2005 06:03

Eclipse User

Originally posted by: rush2rahul.hotmail.com

Hi,

I was wondering what essentially is the difference between SWT-Designer
from instantiations and VE project? At this time both almost appear to
be the same to me from a user perspective.

Are there any known longterm directional differences between the two?

TIA,
Rahul.

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Re: SWT-Designer instantiations [message #95083 is a reply to message #95049]

Tue, 28 June 2005 12:50

Dave Orme

Messages: 424
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Rahul Gudla wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I was wondering what essentially is the difference between SWT-Designer
> from instantiations and VE project? At this time both almost appear to
> be the same to me from a user perspective.

VE supplies Swing and SWT GUI builders, but also provides an API making
it possible for people like you to customize it to your needs. There
are several commercial entities (who have asked to remain anonymous)
that do exactly this.

VE is open-source, Designer is closed source.

> Are there any known longterm directional differences between the two?

VE is chartered with being a platform as well as a tool. Designer is
really just a tool.

Best regards,

Dave Orme
--
Visual Editor Project lead
http://www.db4o.com -- The Open-source Java Object Database
http://xswt.sf.net -- XML-based SWT page description language

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Re: SWT-Designer instantiations [message #96075 is a reply to message #95049]

Mon, 04 July 2005 12:00

Eric Clayberg

Messages: 979
Registered: July 2009
Location: Boston, MA

Senior Member

"Rahul Gudla" <rush2rahul@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:d9qp40$9bg$1@news.eclipse.org...
>
> I was wondering what essentially is the difference between SWT-Designer
> from instantiations and VE project?

SWT Designer, which is the SWT subcomponent of WindowBuilder, is a full
featured GUI builder supporting all SWT widgets, SWT layout managers, JFace
viewers and RCP component types. It has complete support for creating
Eclipse plugin UIs and RCP app UIs (as well as standalone SWT and Swing
apps).

http://www.windowbuilderpro.com/

With SWT Designer, you can create and edit wizard pages, dialogs, JFace app
windows, preference & property pages, view parts & edit parts, etc.

http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/wizards/ wizard_jface_wizardpage.html
http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/wizards/ wizard_jface_titleareadialog.html
http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/wizards/ wizard_jface_applicationwindow.html
http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/wizards/ wizard_eclipse_preferencepage.html
http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/wizards/ wizard_eclipse_viewpart.html

SWT Designer also supports the Eclipse Forms API (including all widgets and
special layout managers) as well as specialized libraries like preference
page field editors.

http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/wizards/ wizard_forms_formpage.html
http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/palettes /palettes.html#FieldEditors
http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/palettes /palettes.html#EclipseForms

SWT Designer also supports all of the standard SWT widgets and layout
managers (including FormLayout) and all of the JFace viewers (like
TableViewer, CheckboxTreeViewer, etc.). It also has excellent
internationalization support, many different code generation options and the
ability to reverse engineer almost any GUI code created by other tools or by
hand (including code generated by the VE).

http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/tutorial /FormLayout.htm
http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/palettes /palettes.html
http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/nls/nls. html
http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/docs/preferen ces/preferences.html

Note that SWT Designer is a commercial tool with a $199 list price (lower
cost NC and academic licenses are available). A free, feature-limited
edition is also available as is a time-limited eval version of the entire
product (for Eclipse 2.1, 3.0 or 3.1).

http://www.instantiations.com/windowbuilderpro/download.html

> At this time both almost appear to be the same to me from a user
> perspective.

The two products are quite different in terms of the features that they
support. I would encourage you to give both a try and decide for yourself.
You can use the eval version of SWT Designer for two weeks (or longer if
necessary), which is usually more than enough time to try out most of its
features

-Eric Clayberg
Sr. Vice President of Product Development
Instantiations, Inc.
http://www.instantiations.com
http://www.windowbuilderpro.com

Author: "Eclipse: Building Commercial Quality Plug-ins"
http://www.awprofessional.com/title/0321228472

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