How can I create a “modern looking” Java desktop application?

Question

Similar questions to this are asked periodically, but many of these answers are outdated.

I need to build a cross-platform desktop application in Java with a GUI of comp

Answer 1

QT is quite extensive but also very big (bloated) and complex. There is also the SWT library being used by open office for instance. SWT uses native UI widgets for buttons, tables etc where as Swing emulates them.

However, the trend is clearly towards writing rich client applications for the browser using HTML and Javascript. Both of these have made huge strides in the past few years.

HTML5 specifically targets rich client applications with features such as better forms and local database to support disconnected scenarios (note that this last feature is not standardized yet but it is implemented by all latest browsers).

Javascript has now powerful libraries with jQuery and its many plugins. There are even languages like Coffeescript which can be used to produce Javascript with a simpler and more powerful syntax.

There's also no need for such apps to connect to an outside server. Small footprint local servers (eg: jetty, node.js, ...) and databases (SQLite, H2,...) can be installed on the client to make a completely self contained application.