Cross-platform development issue with PLAF classes

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qu0ll - 13 Dec 2006 13:54 GMT

I am trying to develop an application to run on both Linux and Windows so I
need to use both the GTK look and feel and the Windows look and feel.
However, it seems that the JRE's rt.jar does not contain the GTK classes on
the Windows platform whereas the Linux platform does include the Windows
classes. The result is that I cannot fully build the system on the Windows
platform which is my chief development environment.

While it makes sense not to include unsupported classes in the runtime, why
are the Windows classes included on Linux and how do I build my system on
Windows? I am using Mustang FCS.

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Ian Wilson - 13 Dec 2006 14:27 GMT

> I am trying to develop an application to run on both Linux and Windows so I
> need to use both the GTK look and feel and the Windows look and feel.

I assume that you want your app to automatically use the GTK LAF on
Linux and use the Windows LAF on Windows

> However, it seems that the JRE's rt.jar does not contain the GTK classes on
> the Windows platform whereas the Linux platform does include the Windows
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> are the Windows classes included on Linux and how do I build my system on
> Windows? I am using Mustang FCS.

Doesn't
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
do what you want?

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Andrew Thompson - 13 Dec 2006 14:27 GMT

> I am trying to develop an application to run on both Linux and Windows so I
> need to use both the GTK look and feel and the Windows look and feel.

// Set System L&F
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
// builds on Win (and presumably other platforms)
// works for Win/Linux/Unix/Solaris/Mac. OS/...

> While it makes sense not to include unsupported classes in the runtime, why
> are the Windows classes included on Linux

I do not know.

>...and how do I build my system on Windows?

I set the System PLAF on most projects I deploy,
and have never needed direct access to the other
PLAF's. Why do you?

Andrew T.

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Thomas A. Russ - 13 Dec 2006 17:40 GMT

> > I am trying to develop an application to run on both Linux and Windows so I

Well, if you are trying to be cross-platform, why limit yourself to just
Linux and Windows? What about Solaris? MacOS? Other Unix types?

> > need to use both the GTK look and feel and the Windows look and feel.
>
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> // builds on Win (and presumably other platforms)
> // works for Win/Linux/Unix/Solaris/Mac. OS/...

Which is why Andrew's suggestion has much merit.

> >...and how do I build my system on Windows?
>
> I set the System PLAF on most projects I deploy,
> and have never needed direct access to the other
> PLAF's. Why do you?

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Thomas A. Russ, USC/Information Sciences Institute

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qu0ll - 14 Dec 2006 10:48 GMT

> // Set System L&F
> UIManager.setLookAndFeel(
> UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
> // builds on Win (and presumably other platforms)
> // works for Win/Linux/Unix/Solaris/Mac. OS/...

No, it doesn't seem to work in my environment. On a Fedora Core 6 machine
running KDE 3.5.5 and Mustang FCS it returns Metal as the system look and
feel. Shouldn't it be GTK?

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qu0ll - 13 Dec 2006 14:41 GMT

I have a number of PLAFs that I want to use and I thought I needed to
specify each one by name. But you are both correct in that I can use the
method to set the system PLAF for both Windows and GTK PLAFs. Thanks.

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qu0ll
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Thomas Fritsch - 13 Dec 2006 14:48 GMT

> I am trying to develop an application to run on both Linux and Windows
> so I need to use both the GTK look and feel and the Windows look and feel.
> However, it seems that the JRE's rt.jar does not contain the GTK classes
> on the Windows platform whereas the Linux platform does include the
> Windows classes. The result is that I cannot fully build the system
> the Windows platform which is my chief development environment.

Why do you need these LookAndFeel classes for building at all?
I guess you have lines like
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(new GTKLookAndFeel());
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(new WindowsLookAndFeel());
in your code.
If so, you should replace them by
UIManager.setLookAndFeel("com.sun.java.swing.plaf.gtk.GTKLookAndFeel");
UIManager.setLookAndFeel("com.sun.java.swing.plaf.windows.WindowsLookAndFeel");
The advantage is that your building then becomes independent of these
LookAndFeel classes.

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Thomas

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Cross-platform development issue with PLAF classes

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