Rich client platforms versus JavaFX 2 versus Swing

Question

Pretty soon now, we\'re gonna need to develop a GUI for creating configurations (more like scripts, to be honest) for our EAI solution at work. Think of a typical workflow edito

Answer 1

Here some points and (personal) opinions for helping you determining a proper solution for your current situation:

Eclipse vs. Netbeans

Personally, I dont't like big discussions about pros/cons of IDEs. Just use the one you feel most comfortable with. If you work in a team, make a voting. Considering Swing both IDEs are fine (IMHO Netbeans has the better GUI builder). Considering JavaFX 2.0 both IDEs are also fine but both share the absence of a GUI builder. I wouldn't recommend a mixture of IDEs.

JavaFX 2.0 vs. Swing vs. SWT vs. Eclipse RCP

Well, I don't - I even can't - want to tell you which of the above listed UI technologies is best since I don't know enough about your project's environment - experience, human resources, budget, timeline etc. Having a lean timeline and a team(?) of experienced Swing developers should lead the decision to Swing. Same for SWT and Eclipse RCP. Cutting edge developers might tend to try JavaFX. I agree, JavaFX gets a lot attention and you get great looking demonstrations, but keep in mind, that using JavaFX requires - additionally to the JRE - the JavaFX runtime on each client.

Hope this helps.