[Mark Goebl]

Hello,
I must create apps which run on my Apple (OS X 10.1x) and on windows.
I've taken a look at Projectbuilder and Interface Builder and like them.

Now I have a question:
- How can I create a JAVA GUI which runs under OS X and Windows with a GUI-Tool like Interface Builder?

Does Interface Builder allows me to create Apps which do not depend on Cocoa or Carbon?
Does anyone knows a tool which creates Swing or AWT and which can be used with Project Builder?

Thanks Mark

[sadie]

Aha! This i know about.

To create a cross-platform GUI in Java, you have to use its own GUI libraries, AWT and Swing. You can't use Apple's own ones, of course, and you couldn't use Microsofts even if you were stupid enough to want to.

• Interface Builder is for building Carbon and Cocoa interfaces. Not Swing. The entire layout rules, etc, for Swing are vastly different, so don't expect interface builder to start supporting it any time soon.
  
• Project Builder lets you write ordinary Java code, including Swing, with no problems. You could design your program quite happily in Project Builder. But that doesn't include any visual UI tools at all.
  
• JBuilder has a visual GUI builder, and is (or will soon be) available for OS X. The aqua theme looks crap on it, but it works.
  
• There are other tools you may be able to find - anything written in Java, obviously, will be fairly easy to get running. If needed, pester the company to make a Mac-specific version.

However, be warned: Swing's layout model wasn't really designed for visual editors, so you're likely to find most of them very disappointing. We do all our Swing GUI work by hand, and that works fine.

[ 12-24-2001: Message edited by: sadie ]

[larkost]

Another thing you might want to check out is RealBasic. It is decent for creating small cross-platform apps. For a really complex app I think it would be limiting, but you will have to figure out where you stand on that.

[Arta]

You mean UI of "Java version of Sketch.app" was also made by hand and not InterfaceBuilder? It comes with the developer tools of X. Check it out. before reading the ABOUT box, I thought I'm using the Cocoa version. When I found the lack of "Save as PDF" in the dialog-box, I checked the ABOUT box!

In that case, it's a bad news for me. I was about to start some serious Java programming and was happy about ProjectBuilder and InterfaceBuilder.

Originally posted by sadie:
<STRONG>Aha! This i know about.

To create a cross-platform GUI in Java, you have to use its own GUI libraries, AWT and Swing. You can't use Apple's own ones, of course, and you couldn't use Microsofts even if you were stupid enough to want to.

• Interface Builder is for building Carbon and Cocoa interfaces. Not Swing. The entire layout rules, etc, for Swing are vastly different, so don't expect interface builder to start supporting it any time soon.
  
• Project Builder lets you write ordinary Java code, including Swing, with no problems. You could design your program quite happily in Project Builder. But that doesn't include any visual UI tools at all.
  
• JBuilder has a visual GUI builder, and is (or will soon be) available for OS X. The aqua theme looks crap on it, but it works.
  
• There are other tools you may be able to find - anything written in Java, obviously, will be fairly easy to get running. If needed, pester the company to make a Mac-specific version.

However, be warned: Swing's layout model wasn't really designed for visual editors, so you're likely to find most of them very disappointing. We do all our Swing GUI work by hand, and that works fine.

[ 12-24-2001: Message edited by: sadie ]</STRONG>

[Angus_D]

Originally posted by larkost:
<STRONG>Another thing you might want to check out is RealBasic. It is decent for creating small cross-platform apps. For a really complex app I think it would be limiting, but you will have to figure out where you stand on that.</STRONG>

RB isn't really platform independent in the same sense that Java is: It cross-compiles for Win32 as well as Mac OS (Classic and Carbon), but it won't work under Linux or anything.

[seb2]

when i do java, i set up the gui programatically; draw it on a piece of paper first, it's not too difficult afterwards.

but there are tools available to create guis, one of them is gridbagger for example. doesn't look as nice as ib (how could it?), but it works -- if i remember correctly.

oh, btw: try to use swing; awt is butt ugly if you use it on a non os x machine (that is, no aqua elements) and has some serious cross platform issues with certain elements. swing does so, too, but it's not as bad as awt.