The Definitive Guide to SWT and Jface

The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace, Second Edition covers SWT and JFace, and describes how to build stand-alone Java applications using these technologies. This latest edition examines all the new widgets added to SWT since the publication of the first edition, discusses event handling in greater detail, and adds new coverage on topics such as threading and embedding AWT and Swing classes into SWT applications. The second edition also discusses the enhancements to existing SWT classes, such as Browser, and explains which entities have been deprecated (e.g., TableTree and GridData constants) and which entities have replaced them. Fresh examples have been added throughout the book to further illustrate SWT and JFace programming. Part 1 gets the readers ready to build SWT and JFace applications. It first describes how Java GUIs have evolved, why SWT was born, and why it is superior to previous windowing toolkits. Next, it introduces the Eclipse tool, denotes the necessary SWT libraries, and describes how to launch SWT/JFace applications from within Eclipse. It also discusses how to build SWT/JFace applications without using Eclipse. Part 2 focuses on building applications using SWT. It steps developers through the entire class hierarchy of SWT, explaining clearly how to use all the widgets in the toolkit. After reading Part 2, developers will be well equipped to create Java applications using SWT. Part 3 describes the relationship between JFace and SWT, and explains how to build applications using JFace. The power of this additional abstraction layer atop SWT is demonstrated through explanation and code. What you'll learn Examine all the new widgets offered in SWT since previousedition of this book. Get a comprehensive view of both SWT and JFace and understand the relationship between the two toolkits/tools. Explore practical code examples that illustrate how to use the libraries. See how to use any editor or IDE for creating Java applications--not just the Eclipse IDE. Learn how to use industry-standard Ant for builds. See how to use SWT and JFace across platforms (Windows, *nix, Mac OS X), not just in Windows. Who is this book for? The major audience for this book: Java developers. Some familiarity with building GUI applications in Java, whether with AWT or Swing, will be helpful but not necessary. Also helpful will be an understanding of event-driven programming, although again this will not be necessary. No experience or knowledge of Eclipse, SWT, or JFace is necessary.