Press Release
November 29, 2004
"SWT: A Developer's Notebook": Write Once, Run Natively
Sebastopol, CA--"One of the most exciting trends in software development
is the move toward the use of open source tools and components to assist
developers in quickly and easily completing assigned programming tasks,"
observes Tim Hatton, author of the new SWT: A Developer's Notebook
(O'Reilly, US $29.95). "One of the most successful of the open source
platforms is Eclipse," Hatton adds, "an open source Integrated Development
Environment (IDE) which is designed to enable developers to write code in
any language, for any platform, using a standardized IDE."
The Eclipse platform has rapidly gained popularity as both a Java IDE and
a Java platform for application programming. One of its core underpinnings
is SWT, the Standard Widget Toolkit. This set of components can be used
to develop graphical user interfaces in Java. Incorporating the look and
feel of whatever platform the code is run on, SWT offers a lightning-fast
approach to building GUIs--all of which actually look like they belong on
the platform on which they're run.
"Although Java itself has built-in capability to develop graphical
applications using the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) and the Java
Foundation Classes (Swing) components, these toolkits have been tarred
with the brush of sluggish performance and an inability to deliver user
interfaces that appear to seamlessly integrate with the operating system
for which the GUI was developed," notes Hatton. "Such is the price we pay
for the promise of Java--write once, run anywhere." Hatton emphasizes
that the advantage of SWT is that it provides the ability to write once,
run natively.
In the typical Developer's Notebook style, SWT: A Developer's Notebook
bypasses what developers already know--the basics of user interface
design, graphical components, and what a button does--and jumps right to
the core of SWT. Each lab in the book details a specific task; readers can
work from the first page to the last, look up just what they need to know,
or carry the book as a quick reference for on-the-spot fact checking. No
other resource delves so deeply into SWT so quickly or shows as
effectively what SWT is capable of doing. Without wasted words or space,
this lab-style guide covers:
Setting up an SWT-friendly development environmentBuilding interactive menus, complete with separators, shortcut keys, and
event handlersAdding toolbars and SWT coolbars, and integrating them with existing menu
systemsCreating text fields, lists, and combo boxesAdding sliders, dialogs, and progress bars to applicationsCreating advanced interfaces using trees, tables, and tabbed folders
The new Developer's Notebooks series from O'Reilly covers important new
tools for software developers. Emphasizing example over explanation and
practice over theory, the books focus on learning by doing--delivering the
goods straight from the masters, in an informal and code-intensive style
that suits developers. Developers who have been curious about SWT, but
haven't known where to begin, will find a perfect starting point in SWT:
A Developer's Notebook.
Additional Reources:
SWT: A Developer's Notebook
Tim Hatton
ISBN: 0-596-00838-4, 297 pages, $29.95 US, $43.95 CA
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000
About O'Reilly
O'Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O'Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying "faint signals" from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.
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