Eclipse on Swing

The power of Eclipse is a direct result of its capability to embrace new technologies. Here we present a unique approach to embrace Swing, which might determine the future of Eclipse on all levels, such as Client, Embedded, RCP and RIA.

Wouldn't it be great, if one had the choice between SWT and Swing not only at the beginning of a project but throughout development? How about using the familiar APIs to develop Eclipse-Plug-ins, RCP-applications or a JFace/SWT-GUI and still keep the option to switch back and forth between SWT and Swing without changes to your code?

The sister projects SWTSwing and Eclipse on Swing (EOS) by Christopher Deckers and Dieter Krachtus offer this solution. The prerequisites needed to understand and successfully use this technology are minimal since the EOS-Project offers a plug-in that hooks into the preferences of Eclipse or any RCP-based application and allows switching between SWT and Swing. Since it is easy to understand how, it is more important to understand when, where, and why to use this new technology. We both explain the technical details and advantages a Swing implementation of SWT offers already today.

Unlike most parts of Eclipse, SWT is a unique and irreplaceable element right at the root of Eclipse. Therefore, we also focus on the motivations behind the EOS project, which is not only about offering a whole new set of possibilities, but also about flexibility and security considering the future of Eclipse. At last we demonstrate the quality of our solution by running popular applications like Azureus, Bioclipse and even Eclipse itself on Swing.

Dieter Krachtus is the founder of Eclipse on Swing (EOS) and co-developer of SWTSwing. He works as developer and consultant with a main focus on Rich Clients on the basis of Swing and the Eclipse RCP. Currently he does a PHD at the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR) in Heidelberg.