We are looking at using the Eclipse Rich Client Platform for a desktop application and want to know what options are available for user interface development. The Sun Netbeans environment provides a graphical user interface builder that seems to be missi
We want to use the Eclipse Rich Client Platform for a desktop application. What options are available for user interface development? The Sun Netbeans environment provides a GUI builder that seems to be missing in Eclipse. How does one develop an Eclipse user interface without entering widget code by hand?
At least three tool sets are available for developing Eclipse desktop user interfaces at a higher level than hand writing Simple Widget Toolkit (SWT) code.
The Eclipse Visual Editor Project provides a framework for developing GUI builders that support both SWT/RPC code and Swing/Java Foundation Classes code.
Two other open source projects available on SourceForge, XSWT and EclipseXUL, provide for the development and construction of Eclipse user interfaces through the use of particularly formatted XML files.
XSWT describes SWT layouts in a way that provides a one-to-one mapping between XSWT elements and SWT Java code.
EclipseXUL, an Eclipse feature under development adds XML User Interface Language support to Eclipse and is based on the Eclipse Web Tools Project.
