The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFACE [Paperback]

Rob Warner (Author), Rob Harris (Contributor)

Book Description

Series: Expert's Voice | Publication Date: June 21, 2004

The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace describes how to build stand-alone Java applications with Eclipse's SWT (Standard Wizard Tool kit) and JFace toolkit. Part of the Eclipse IDE (Eclipse itself is built with this software), SWT and JFace provide for portable Java applications that have native platform performance and native platform appearance.

This book describes the history of Java GUI toolkits, explains why SWT is superior, and then provides extensive examples of building applications with SWT. This book takes developers through the entire class hierarchy of SWT, explaining clearly (with Java code) how to use all the widgets in the toolkit. JFace, an additional abstraction layer built on SWT, is also described and this book demonstrates how to build applications with JFace with explanation and example code.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert Harris is a software engineer focused on distributed object computing. Since earning his master of science degree from the University of Florida, he has been designing and implementing flexible, resilient solutions in the telecommunications, transportation, and medical industries. His personal interests include speaking French with his daughter, Mallory, catching bugs with his son, Charlie, and infuriating his wife, Alison.

Rob Warner is a senior technical staff member for Availity, LLC, based in Jacksonville, Florida, where he works with various teams and technologies to deliver solutions in the healthcare sector. He co-authored The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace (Apress, 2004), and he blogs at Grailbox.com. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He lives in Jacksonville with his wife, Sherry, and their five children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 684 pages
• Publisher: A-Press; 1 edition (June 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590593251
• ISBN-13: 978-1590593257
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #809,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great choice for starting your SWT learning path, August 6, 2004

By 

Lasse Koskela (Helsinki, Finland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFACE (Paperback)

I won't be needing another SWT book in a while... "The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace" is indeed definitive and proved to be a nearly perfect choice for starting my journey inside Eclipse's much hyped GUI toolkit(s).

The book starts from scratch, explaining the history and motivation for a different approach to a GUI toolkit (SWT's native peer widgets vs. the emulated widgets of Swing, etc.), proceeding to your typical Hello World app with a single window and a single label, and ends up covering most everything I can think of needing to build even a relatively complex GUI using SWT and JFace. The book is a huge tome, partly because it includes listings of all the various methods provided by the classes introduced along the way. On one hand, it's a good thing because the book is pretty much all you need (i.e. a decent replacement for Google;), and on the other hand, the book would be a lot more pleasant to read if you'd drop a few hundred pages...

One thing I specifically liked about the book is that the authors have done a good job employing screenshots where needed -- especially in the chapter about layouts.

I'll definitely recommend this book for anyone looking to learn SWT. I'm not really a GUI developer (only having done Swing for personal stuff) and the book works for me as an introduction, tutorial, and a reference.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book on SWT yet, October 21, 2004

By 

Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFACE (Paperback)

This is the second book that I have read on SWT. The other was Addison Wesley's book "SWT: The Standard Widget Toolkit", which is in the Eclipse series. That was a short book that flew through the topic. This is a much more in-depth work.

Both books share the same introductory style. They walk through the toolkit from front-to-back and demonstrate each concept and widget by showing code and screen shots. Each book suffers from the same long term problem in that it cannot be used as reference material since neither book provides an appendix that would serve that purpose.

That being said, I still prefer this book because it is much more in-depth and presents a shallower longer learning curve than the Addison-Wesley book.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad...but not great, either, April 27, 2005

By 

Christopher L Merrill "CMerrill" (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFACE (Paperback)

Much of the beginning chapters in SWT are simply API listings - WORTHLESS! I've got those online...don't need them in a book, especially since they are not as complete as the JavaDocs. Otherwise, not bad. I'm looking for better...