Swing Sightings
Volume 1
June 25th, 2001
One of the most exciting
kinds of e-mail that the Swing/JFC team receive is a product announcement
for a new JavaTM application that features a Swing GUI. A close runner-up
is the URL for a new game or a compelling never-before-seen applet.
Over the years we've
collected many links to this information. In fact, if you walked down
the hallways here you would see the walls plastered with hundreds of
screenshots from applications developed outside of Sun. Therefore,
we have decided to launch a Swing Connection feature to share this
bounty. Don't expect a comprehensive survey; these are applications
that we bumped into or that found us.
This feature is
called "Swing Sightings" and here are several new applications we've
happened upon recently. Previous Swing Sightings are available in the
numbered web pages listed below. These applications don't come with
our special seal of approval (we don't have one) and, although we may
have tried some of them out, we don't claim to have really tested any
of them. They're here because, based on the descriptions and the screenshots
on their web sites, they look like good examples of what is possible
with Swing.
The  button
indicates that if you have Java Web Start installed, you can launch
the appication by just simply clicking on the the button. Note: if
you don't have Java Web Start installed, you can get it here.
If you know of an
application that should be considered for this Swing Connection feature,
we'd love to hear about it. Please contact
us.
| Java IDE: IntelliJ |
|
Most IDEs for the Java development environment are general purpose --
they provide support for building GUIs and working with databases,
as well as writing, executing, and debugging code. The IDEA IDE from IntelliJ is
somewhat different. Its focus is just on the last three items with
special emphasis on tools for refactoring your code. It's small,
it performs very well, and it's very easy on the eyes. Take a look!
Check out IDEA.
|
| XML Editor: Morphon Technologies |
XML is everywhere!
It's an integral part of the new SunTM Open Net Environment
Webtop, and it's the preferred syntax for a seemingly endless stream of
new standard data formats and protocols. There are several general purpose XML
editors written with Swing, and here's one from Morphon
Technologies, all the way from Rotterdam in the Netherlands.
|
| XML Graphics Editor: Apache |
|
If you've ever wondered what kinds of on-screen magic can be created
with Java2DTM package in the Java Foundation Classes,
you'll want to check out the Batik
SVG Tookit by the Apache XML
Project. SVG stands for "Scalable Vector Graphics" (and occasionally "Something
Very Good"). It's an XML format for artwork that can be nicely rendered
by the Batik viewer. You can write SVG documents with an ordinary
text editor or you can use a real graphics tool, like Adobe Illustrator.
And now you can launch the Batik
viewer with Java
Web Start.
|
| Personal Finance: Appgen |
Here's an application for managing your money from the financial software
company, Appgen. On June 8th 2001,
they released version 3.1 which runs on the Mac OS, Mac OS X, Linux,
FreeBSD, Solaris, Windows, OS/2 operating environments. Moneydance
has the honor of being one of the first applications to debut on OS
X. In fact, a nice introduction
to Moneydance on Apple's web site shows MoneyDance sporting the
OS X Aqua look and feel for Swing.
Check out Moneydance,
or see more Moneydance screenshots here.
|
| Computer
Music: Queensland University of Technology |
JMusic is a programming library for musicians written at the Queensland
University of Technology (QUT). It includes broad support for creating
sounds and compositions, and it comes with a set of GUI widgets based on
Swing. Check out the screenshots and listen to some of the music composed
with this impressive suite of software.
Check out jMusic,
or see some jMusic
applications.
|
| Download
Accelerator: SwarmCast |
The SwarmCast Gateway application is not just interesting for its use of
Swing and Java Web Start, it is also an interesting technical feat
in the peer-to-peer space. The application supports fast downloads
of very large files by finding nearby "peer" computers that are also
running the application and have already downloaded the file, and then
downloads pieces of the file in parallel from them. The application
is in beta and they are presently serving up the movie trailer for
the new science fiction movie, Final Fantasy.
Check
out Swarmgate.
|
| Napster
Client |
One of the most widely discussed, you might even say notorius, applications
on the web today is the Napster "file sharing" application. The standard
client for Napster is a conventional PC desktop application. However, there
is also a Java client that can talk to the Napster servers.
Check out
the Java implementation
of a file sharing application.
Unfortunately,
this project appears to have been retired.
|
| Gnutella
Client: LimeWire |
|
If you've been following the debate about the future of Napster, you've
probably heard about an alternative "peer to peer" file sharing system
with a lower profile approach called "gnutella". There is a beautiful
gnutella client available at LimeWire that
sports a slick Swing custom look and feel. A clever animation of
a cross-sectioned lime is used as an activity monitor in the download
portion of the application.
With the aggressive
filtering going on a Napster, LimeWire appears to have become
a huge hit!
|
| Graph
Drawing: OpenJGraph and Tom
Sawyer Software |
There is an active open source project called OpenJGraph whose
objective is providing support for creating and manipulating graphs.
A commercial package for graphs from Tom
Sawyer Software provides comprehensive support for graphing. They've
been writing graph software for about ten years now!
Check out
the Graph
Editor Toolkit.
|
| Mars
Settlement Simulation: Scott Davis |
The Mars Simulation Project is
a freeware project that creates a simulation of future human settlements
on Mars. So, if you're thinking about moving there, or if you'd just like
to play city planner, take a look. Interestingly, the site's home page
notes that, although the simulation is intended to be realistic, it might
be morphed into a game at some point.
|
| Applets! |
As promised, we'd also like to reveal some of our favorite applets. Here's
one from a game development company called FriendlyGiants that
consistently makes people's jaws drop. It's an an arcade style shoot-em-up
scroller with a 640x480 fixed size window. It's very responsive, has
a great audio track, and manages to put up about 50 frames a second.
It's also loads of fun to play.
Blast 'em
up with Blastian!
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(note:
click on the images for larger views)
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| Java
Toaster: Robin Southgate |
|
Last, but most certainly not least (and to be truthful not exactly a
Swing Sighting) is this Java powered toaster from Robin Southgate
from Brunel University in England. The toaster burns the weather
forcast into bread, all controlled by Java. The weather forcast is
downloaded over a phone line.
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