[Mapping workbench] Which GUI framework to use

["Florian Bruckner (citec.at)" <fl...@citec.at>]

Hi all,

I'd like to start a discussion about which GUI framework to use for the
mapping workbench. There are only a few requirements I can think of:

  - the licensing of the framework must be compatible with the Apache
License
  - a GUI editor must be available free of charge
  - it must be available for Java on all widespread platforms (i.e. Windows,
Linux, Sun, sth else?)

Up to now, three frameworks are brought into the discussion:

 - Swing
 - AWT
 - SWT

While I know that Swing and AWT satisfy the laid out requirements, there are
a lot of people who dislike those. As an alternative there would be SWT, but
I do not know about its capabilities, availability, licensing, etc.

My personal favorite is Swing, for the following reasons:
   - included in Java 2 and therefore acceptable to use in an apache project
   - Numerous GUI editors are available free of charge
   - included in Java 2 and therefore available on all platforms where Java
2 is available
   - In contrast to AWT it is very portable (AWT sometimes leads to
surprises if you change platforms)
   - Experience with Swing is widespread

But there are also some cons:
   - Can be slow

Are there any other alternatives you could think of? Which framework would
you like to see in a mapping workbench?


regards,

Florian