I've spent lots of time writing desktop-esque apps in AWT, Swing, SWT, and javascript/html/css. The last one of that list of 4 was by far the easiest to write in.
On Nov 5, 6:54 pm, Rob Ross <rob.r...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Nov 4, 2010, at 11:21 AM, Reinier Zwitserloot wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > I'd love to believe it. I'd be somewhat more convinced if there were > > libraries / frameworks out there that let you write a desktop app in > > the form of servlets and templates / static HTML/js/css files, and > > some hooks for app startup, shutdown, and some interaction for the > > very minimal "chrome" (UI elements) on the window edges, and then > > packages it up for you into a single executable which, when run, opens > > a webkit / gecko embedded browser, starts up an internal server, and > > makes it "just work". > > > Something like iTunes (the music store part runs on HTML, or so I > > hear), or Steam (which is all HTML running on top of an embedded > > webkit). > > > As far as I know no such tool is available for java, nor for python, > > ruby, or the CLR. Personally I'd say such a desktop environment would > > easily be far nicer to write in than swing, and has the considerable > > advantage that you can share a lot of code between this desktop > > version and a web-based app. You also can use all the latest and > > greatest HTML5 features, because you know exactly what kind of browser > > you end up running on (though this conflicts with the "hey, I can turn > > this into a webapp in a snap" idea). > > I think Swing is a pretty great environment for writing desktop apps, but > that comes with lots of practice. > > I find it highly amusing that people are bemoaning how hard it is to write > desktop apps in an HTML browser. > > Well DUH. It was never designed for that purpose. It is designed to display > marked-up text. Period. Everything else has been bolted on with staples and > duct tape. > > If you want to write a desktop application, use a desktop application > framework like Swing or SWT (in the Java world), or Qt if you want to go > mostly-native but a little cross platform. Or if cross platform is not an > issue at all, use Cocoa on the Mac and/or .Net on Windows. > > I think maybe the reason there's so much effort to turn the browser into > something it was never meant to be is that like all humans, people tend to > stick with what they know, and don't want to invest the mental energy into > learning new frameworks (like Swing) that have already solved all these > problems. > > Rob -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to javapo...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to javaposse+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
