Zetes: A lightweight cross-platform GUI application framework for Java

by medeu • 12 years ago

41 31 12 years ago

medeu• 12 years ago

There is a blog post in russian: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&js=y&prev...

cwyers• 12 years ago

The screenshot for the TinyViewer on Windows shows why this sort of thing is difficult to pull off well. The File drop-down doesn't align where it should, it hangs off to the left. The Window drop-down is far, far worse.

Tloewald2• 12 years ago

This actually looks intriguing. Some links to screenshots or sample programs would be nice.

alexndl• 12 years ago

Zetes Examples: https://github.com/bigfatbrowncat/zetes-examples

tzm• 12 years ago

Here's a compiled app (Mac): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3784302/OldLand.app.zip

VMG• 12 years ago

Low-res and you can't really see the control elements.

Color me skeptical.

notastartup• 12 years ago

After my horrible experience building a desktop cross platform app in Swing GUI, I vowed to never use Java. I wonder how Zetes addresses the problems with Swing.

DigitalJack• 12 years ago

perhaps if you gave some examples of your issues with swing, you'd find out.

lucian1900• 12 years ago

By using SWT instead of Swing, it would seem.

abengoam• 12 years ago

Any concrete example of issues with Swing, or just general discomfort?

staticelf• 12 years ago

The font rendering for Linux is terrible. Just look at Intellij IDEA in ubuntu for example.

It's a wonderful editor but I can't use it since it is almost not readable.

tieTYT• 12 years ago

Zetes is a crossplatform lightweight framework which allows the user to develop console or native-looking GUI programs, written in Java, that could run on a machine without any JVM installed.

Awesome, sounds great.

And in addition it has a beautiful GUI (based upon SWT).

Hm, I had a bad experience with SWT (which was over 10 years ago, so probably irrelevant). But what annoyed me is that if Windows could do X and Y, and Linux could do Y and Z, then SWT could only do Y. I found its lack of features a problem. I felt like I had to create my own components by hand a lot of the time. Swing, on the other hand, would let me do X, Y and Z and make sure they look decent on both OSes.

The main feature of the library is that it makes a thin wrapper on SWT and basic system libraries that makes it possible to make an app which has a native look-and-feel under different platforms. For example, the "Exit" item is in system menu on OS X, but in "File" menu under Windows; about box has "OK" button in Windows, but doesn't have any on OS X and so on...

Mind, it's been over 10 years, but how is this different from plain SWT? Is it just that it can run without a JRE?

Alupis4• 12 years ago

A lot of effort went into this obviously.

How does it compare to JavaFX -- the new GUI toolkit built into the standard JRE now?

(I have not used SWT, but I do love JavaFX)

codazoda• 12 years ago

Not a Java guy. Not sure the differences between JDK 1.7.x and JDK 8 (8u5 is the current version in the link). I assume it's JDK 1.8.x, but am not sure. Is JDK 8 okay or do we need an older version?

mappum• 12 years ago

People are complaining about how bad SWT is, and I definitely agree. It's a product of systems engineers, not the modern hipster-designer breed of developers.

If you fall into the latter category and want to work with Java, I highly recommend JavaFX Webview. It's essentially webkit as a UI layer, so you get to work with HTML5/Bootstrap/whatever. Surprisingly, its interface from Java to Javascript is quite well designed.

ark15• 12 years ago

I second your JavaFX Webview recommendation. And if you are using JavaFX, you can always use its built-in native packaging tool

http://docs.oracle.com/javafx/2/deployment/self-contained-pa...

Not to say everything else is perfect in JavaFX world but I think if you want to deploy a JavaFX application that is cross platform, the only major missing piece now is auto update support/framework for these self contained applications

moogoo• 12 years ago

To see the difference between Swing and SWT just look at Intellij and Eclipse.

Intellij (use the darkula theme its beautiful), looks great and responds very quickly in both the editor and when performing asynchronous operations. (I have issues with some of its functionality but thats a different story). Intellij is Swing.

Eclipse, is a 2 second push to pain IDE and always has been. Its SWT. As a 15 year java developer I really believe anyone building on the eclipse/SWT framework needs to stop. There is no benefit to the user or the developer at this point to using it except to support a dead fork of the language. In fact there really are no (as in almost zero) SWT apps out there, so why would you think its even a good idea 10 years later? Go work for IBM submit a patch to eclipse. YAY.

I have built personally beautiful apps using Swing, and if Intellij can pull it off so well, clearly swing has gotten a bad rap.

My last nit pick is the exe concept. This is utterly moronic. Its a more or less straightforward concept to bundle a JRE with your app or use an installed local copy. People have only been doing this for oh I dunno, 13 or so years??

The Windows-ification of Java gets infinite down votes from me. The SWT part is merely a waste of time.

markbernard• 12 years ago

Yeah. Swing is so easy to use and you can make it do anything you want. I don't know why people complain so much. I got used to using layout managers and not specifying x,y locations and widths and heights that I just don't like JavaFX.

Gonzih• 12 years ago

From supported os section:

Ubuntu 12.10 or any compatible (x86_64)

Is it gtk compatible or what? Why just 12.10? Some specific gtk version? I don't get it.

Alupis4• 12 years ago

You are interpreting this wrong I believe.

I think the intent was to say:

Linux, on any x86_64 architecture, is supported.

For some reason... people like to list Ubuntu instead of "Linux" when stating they support Linux. The 12.10 is probably just to ensure you have a relatively recent disto.

adrianmalacoda• 12 years ago

I tend to think when people specifically claim to support "Ubuntu" (instead of "Linux") it means they actively tested it with Ubuntu and have determined that it is compatible with Ubuntu. I guess it's easier to just assume everyone uses Ubuntu rather than put in the time/effort to confidently assert that it works with any distro you throw at it.

th3iedkid2• 12 years ago

JVM is a sticky affair by itself.For concurrent and per-formant GUI applications in java that grow over a given expectation,it would need very specific VM tuning like GC behavior,native profiling etc.Most of it comes packaged in a decently stable manner for Oracle JVM, how about a new JVM vendor like in here?

Also am i the only one or is JVM packaging a really big affair?Cant we use netbeans platform pack200+MSI installer or pack200+linux+native_installer or similar for packaging as app?

Alupis4• 12 years ago

You mean to bundle a jre into your application?

There is:

- install4j

- exe4j

- AdvancedInstaller

etc...

All will bundle your jre into an exe, msi, .sh (auto-unpacker), etc. You can even do .dmg's if you want.

I actually find packaging my java apps pretty easy. :)

Also... there are a LOT of JVM vendors. Oracle's JRE/JDK just so happens to be the most well known. Besides OpenJDK/JRE, many other companies make their own such as IBM, BAE, BlueSystems, etc.

masukomi• 12 years ago

i think it's very telling that someone built a GUI framework but didn't feel the need for any screenshots. If it's a GUI tool and it ain't worth showing screenshots, then it ain't worth using IMNSHO.

th3iedkid2• 12 years ago

Examples: https://github.com/bigfatbrowncat/zetes-examples

Zetes: A lightweight cross-platform GUI application framework for Java

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