Re: Java vs. Objective-C for Cocoa

FROM : Zacharias J. Beckman
DATE : Sat Apr 23 00:16:09 2005

Thanks for the reply Marianne,

I just wanted to respond to part of your post:
> I did try, at one time, to convert the UI for part of the application
> to
> pure Java and gave up in frustration and disgust, because of the fact
> that I
> couldn't use Interface Builder.  Trying to code Java to place the
> objects on
> the screen was like the Chinese Water Torture.  Coding x-number of
> blank
> lines between text boxes was just like being back in 1984, when I was
> on an
> IMS project for a big bank, with a text-based user interface and all
> the
> trial and error of working out exactly how many spaces should go
> between
> data fields.


I do all of my development on a Mac (recently purchased the new dual
G5, 2.5Ghz, 5.5GB memory; I'm in heaven). My work is in Java and we do
a great deal of law industry, some financial, etc., and thankfully I
can write pure Java applications on the Mac, test them out with Virtual
PC to make sure they look reasonably correct, and then ship them. I do
have a Linux server at my disposal too, mostly for the database back
end -- but I run my own Oracle 10g on the Mac, so even that is
essentially for sanity checking.

There are some good Java-based IDEs out there (I love Eclipse and I
hope that XCode adopts some of its more powerful features -- the
upcoming Tiger release has already done so in many ways). But, you
mentioned laying out Java user interfaces; yes, it's an awful process.
IB is so, so much easier and God help us, if only the Java engineers
had followed that model we'd be much happier when designing Java
applications. But that said, if you are trapped in the Java UI world,
I'd suggest taking a good look at some of the Eclipse plugins and UI
layout tools. There are several non-Eclipse ones as well. They will
never be Interface Builder, but it's tolerable.

Personally, I'm hoping that a future version of IB will include an
IBLayout for Java, and then thank goodness, we would be able to use
native IB to create our Java UIs. I sure wish Apple would do it
already... ;-)
--
Zacharias J. Beckman – <email_removed> – 805-482-2878 (office)
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even
though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits
who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in the gray
twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat. – Theodore Roosevelt