Swing and Thinlet compared
Tags: Java
This post was inspired by a post on Dzone about Java GUI toolkits. I decided to look at a couple of them: Swing and Thinlet. Swing and Thinlet represent two different ends of the Java user interface spectrum each with its own peculiarities and reasons for use and disuse.
Swing
Pros:
- Good tool support
- Lots of documentation
- Lots of mindshare
- Good extensibilty of base components
- Continuous development
- Nimbus Look and Feel
Cons:
- Not the most simple or straightforward to code
- Can require many dependencies if using components outside core(SwingLabs)
- Metal Look and Feel and the fact that it was the default giving Swing the black eye of being ugly
- The cutting edge features require Java 6
Thinlet
Pros:
- Very lightweight, small jar(38KB)
- Doesn't need Swing or AWT
- XML UI descriptor
- Development seems to be stagnant
- Lower requirement to run (needs Java 1.1 or higher)
Cons:
- XML UI descriptor
- Small amount of built-in components
- Few examples and tutorials
- Development seems to be stagnant
For some that I know that shall remain nameless, the use of a XML UI descriptor is treason and reason to run for the hills away from a tool doing so. To that I say, it all depends on the problem. For a very dull "entreprise" app, it might be just what the doctor order. However, trying to code something like Aerith would probably be painful.