Skip to main content
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index] [List Home]
Re: [udig-devel] holongate vs. SWT_AWT bridge
I glad you brought this up Jody,  I want to know if people have some opinions as well.  We are using JAI in our rendering pipeline and are using Java 2D for printing.  The current renderers use Java 2D as well.  We want/need to use Java2D and JAI for rendering.  However we are displaying in SWT Composites, which requires copying our image into a SWTImage or embedding a AWT Pane into SWT.

  This is a summary of the pro and cons or using the SWT_AWT bridge to embed a AWT Pane into the RCP, as I know them.

Pros:

  • SWT_AWT Bridge is now part of Eclipse's supported API.  So it should continue to be maintained in the future. 
  • Using the SWT_AWT bridge is useful because no native code is required to make displaying the rendered data efficient.
    • We need JAI
  • The SWT_AWT bridge, should, hopefully, continue getting more efficient as time goes on.
    • <>
Cons:
  • Linux requires JRE 1.5, or maybe only the rt.jar.  However Windows works fine with JRE 1.4. I've also asked Matt to see if Macs require JRE 1.5 or if the bridge works with 1.4.  (I haven't seen any reports on that yet)

So the major concern is whether we can require Linux, and maybe Macs, to use JRE 1.5.  I'd really like any input you people have. 

Cheers,
Jesse

Jody Garnett said the following on 08/03/2004 11:31 PM:
I got the following message from Jesse that may be worth wider discussion.

http://www.holongate.org/availability.html It suggests that SWT_AWT
bridge might be worth while.

As I understand it holongate offers a nice stop gap allowing the use of
JAI and the Rich Client Platform. However it is being reworked to take
advantage of the SWT_AWT bridge (limiting it to JDK 1.4 windows, or JDK
1.5 everybody else).

This is a tough one:
- We did intend to use the bridge origionally (although did not know
this would require a wait for JDK 1.5)
- No clue when JDK 1.5 will come out for mac, one of our target platforms
- Stop gap solution (copy Java2D image to eclipse framework image using
native blit routines) does work and Jesse has been working with it
- SWT_AWT brige does not have the performance hit

I imagine we will need some measurement, a look at the JDK and Eclipse
RCP roadmaps, and some feedback from someone with a Mac before we know
what to do on this one.

Jody


_______________________________________________
User-friendly Desktop Internet GIS (uDig)
http://udig.refractions.net
http://lists.refractions.net/mailman/listinfo/udig-devel


Back to the top