[vtkusers] Re: choosing the best tool for creating GUIs

[Prabhu Ramachandran]

>>>>> "SB" == Steve Boyd <skboyd at ucalgary.ca> writes:

    SB> Nobody seems to have talked about Java as a good tool and I
    SB> was wondering if I've missed something important.  I would
    SB> have thought that the 'swing' classes in Java would make it
    SB> attractive as an application can 'look at home' on any
    SB> platform.  It seems to me not too hard to implement to make
    SB> GUIs (naive?), and it has the added advantage that it can
    SB> easily be turned into applets for use with internet browsers.
    SB> Also, my code wraps into Java quite nicely following the cmake
    SB> instructions, etc.

    SB> Should I be considering Python et al. more closely instead of
    SB> Java?

In one word, yes.  Java seems hardly something you can call a true
scripting language.  Yes, its faster than Python (atleast thats what
the benchmarks say).  But it should be much harder developing with
Java than it is with Python.  So why Java at all?  Why not plain old
C++?  If you are looking at something that runs inside of a browser,
then yes, Java does have an advantage.  But running a full fledged VTK
app inside of a browser seems a little far fetched.  I'm sure it does
have its uses though.

Anyway, use the best tool for the job.  Its a little too much to
expect one tool to fit all jobs. :)

Randy's link on Jython should be useful.

prabhu