Dear ASF Community, In this message, as the authors of this post, we are delighted to introduce a new prospective top-level project to the Apache Software Foundation, Material-UI-Swing.
My name is Vincenzo Palazzo, and I am the main developer and maintainer of Material-UI-Swing. Joining me is Zoya Anderson, a contributor to the project. Material-UI-Swing is a modular open-source library written in Java Swing for building sleek, modern desktop applications. The library is currently hosted in a GitHub repository, at this link https://github.com/vincenzopalazzo/material-ui-swing. Material-UI-Swing is open-source software, currently licensed under MIT license, https://github.com/vincenzopalazzo/material-ui-swing/blob/master/LICENSE. The objective of Material-UI-Swing is to empower developers building Java desktop applications with a tool to create visually appealing, modern user interfaces. Material-UI-Swing has been tested and proven in real-life production software for 3 years. Material-UI-Swing is proud to list JetBrains and YourKit as its “Supportes” on GitHub, a testament to the quality and reliability of the library. We believe that Material-UI-Swing project aligns with the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) mission of providing robust and commercially-friendly open source software. Moreover, we are confident that the ASF's community of developers, users, and supporters will be a great fit for Material-UI-Swing. As the first step towards becoming a top-level project (TLP) with the ASF, we are seeking to enter Material-UI-Swing into the Apache Incubator. We are seeking a Champion and Mentor(s) to guide us in this process as per the Apache Incubator guidelines. The role of the Champion and Mentor(s) will be crucial in helping us navigate the Apache community, connect with potential contributors and users, and build a healthy and sustainable project. What Material-UI-Swing is useful for? As you may know, there are many Java Swing applications that serve important functions and cannot be, or should not be, converted to a web or mobile platform. Despite serving their users well, these applications may have outdated graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that are no longer visually appealing. Organizations that own such applications are in need of a solution to modernize the GUI while preserving their core functions and services. This is where Material-UI-Swing comes in. Material-UI-Swing is a modular look and feel library that provides a sleek and modern look to desktop applications. It is a perfect solution for organizations looking to give their Java Swing applications a "makeover" and improve the user experience. What Material-UI-Swing does? Material-UI-Swing is a library designed to provide a modern look-and-feel to Java Swing applications while preserving the core and business logic. It injects a custom UI style and theme into an application, giving it a fresh, modern look. The Material-UI-Swing library is built atop the Swing API, making it easy for developers to integrate it into their applications. With just a simple "drop-in" of the library, developers can achieve a remarkable change in the look-and-feel of their applications. How Material-UI-Swing works? The library has been designed with simplicity in mind and can be configured at runtime or through declarative Java/Kotlin code. It embraces a declarative style within a Java application, inspired by modern frameworks such as Flutter and Jetpack Compose (which may have originally been introduced in Swift). The architecture is summarized in the UML diagram1 and can be viewed at https://ibb.co/MkzzSDn. Furthermore, the "docs" folder of the library's download contains a "uml" subfolder that includes the class diagram file. Current status Material-UI-Swing has been under development since 2018 and in production for the past 3 years, and is currently stable. With 26 releases to date, the project is hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/vincenzopalazzo/material-ui-swing and garners an impressive 2500 monthly downloads. Notably, Material-UI-Swing has been successfully implemented in production for 3 years by the planetary research team at Arizona State University. For those looking to get started, Material-UI-Swing provides extensive documentation and code samples which can be found at https://github.com/vincenzopalazzo/material-ui-swing/wiki. Why ASF? To meet the growing demand for new features and controls and to effectively maintain the library, the original contributors are seeking to expand the pool of developers who can contribute to Material-UI-Swing. Bringing the library to the Apache Software Foundation would provide a supportive and collaborative environment for further development, as well as increase visibility and accessibility for potential contributors and users. As we continue to grow and improve the library, we have come to see the ASF as the perfect home for Material-UI-Swing. The values and principles that drive the Apache community align with our own: user-driven innovation, customer obsession, lively and amiable mailing list discussions, and strength through diversity. We believe that Material-UI-Swing will not only thrive under the guidance of the ASF, but that we will also become exemplary members of the Apache community. If you are interested in serving as the Champion or Mentor for Material-UI-Swing, or if you know someone who might be, please let us know. We would be happy to provide additional information and answer any questions you may have. Thank you for your time and consideration. We look forward to the opportunity to work with the Apache community and bring Material-UI-Swing to its full potential. [1] Material-UI-Swing architecture is described in the UML diagram. See https://ibb.co/MkzzSDn Vincenzo Palazzo Open Source Developer Master of Computer Science student at the University of Pisa, Italy vincenzopala...@member.fsf.org Zoya Anderson Scientific Software Engineer Mars Space Flight Research Team at Arizona State University zoya.ander...@asu.edu
