JBuilder 2006 or Peloton?

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Ramon F Herrera - 27 Jul 2006 03:12 GMT

I have been a loyal JBuilder user for a while (Developer Edition only).
The writing on the wall, however, seems to point in the direction of
Eclipse.

Probably the most important feature of JBuilder for me is the
bidirectional "Source" vs. "Design" views. I understand that Eclipse
is mostly text based, but you can add some plugins (that' where Eclipse
loses me as a user, I rather pay Borland to do that for me) to do GUI
programming. How far has Eclipse advanced in this respect? What's the
forecast? Is it getting a little better? Much better?

I guess my main question is trying to decide the best time to make the
JBuilder-to-Eclipse move.

Thanks,

-Ramon F Herrera

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IchBin - 27 Jul 2006 05:58 GMT

> I have been a loyal JBuilder user for a while (Developer Edition only).
> The writing on the wall, however, seems to point in the direction of
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> -Ramon F Herrera

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Ramon F Herrera - 27 Jul 2006 17:10 GMT

> For Eclipse they have their own Visual Editor (VE) plugin. There are
> also other free and commercial visual Editors plugins you can use. It
> has come a long way. Theirs is nice.

Is it bi-directional?

-Ramon

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IchBin - 27 Jul 2006 17:33 GMT

>> For Eclipse they have their own Visual Editor (VE) plugin. There are
>> also other free and commercial visual Editors plugins you can use. It
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> -Ramon

If you mean go back and forth between GUI plugins? I have never tried
it. After saying that I don't think you can. I know one builder that
keeps its own file to reference a form above and beyond the actual code
in the java file. Not sure why you would want to do that. Once you find
the builder you like you have a tendency to stay with that one. This is
time you need to play with the GUI builders and make a decision which
fits your likes and needs.

Thanks in Advance...
IchBin, Pocono Lake, Pa, USA http://weconsultants.phpnet.us
__________________________________________________________________________

'If there is one, Knowledge is the "Fountain of Youth"'
-William E. Taylor, Regular Guy (1952-)

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Ian Wilson - 28 Jul 2006 11:44 GMT

>>> For Eclipse they have their own Visual Editor (VE) plugin. There are
>>> also other free and commercial visual Editors plugins you can use. It
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> If you mean go back and forth between GUI plugins?

I suspect that by "bi-directional" Ramon is referring to the ability of
Borland IDEs to synchronously update the source code when the user makes
changes in the GUI designer and vice-versa.

e.g. drag a Jbutton from a toolbar onto your JFrame and the IDE
simultaneously inserts the appropriate statements in the source code.
Add setTitle("foo") to the source code and the IDE simultaneously draws
"foo" in the title of the frame in the GUI designer view.

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Ramon F Herrera - 28 Jul 2006 12:49 GMT

> I suspect that by "bi-directional" Ramon is referring to the ability of
> Borland IDEs to synchronously update the source code when the user makes
> changes in the GUI designer and vice-versa.

Exactly.

-Ramon

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IchBin - 27 Jul 2006 06:14 GMT

> I have been a loyal JBuilder user for a while (Developer Edition only).
> The writing on the wall, however, seems to point in the direction of
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> -Ramon F Herrera

For Eclipse they have their own Visual Editor (VE) plugin. There are
also other free and commercial visual Editors plugins you can use. It
has come a long way. Theirs is nice.

Netbeans has a new GUI builder called Matisse with the release of
Netbeans 5.0. I hear good things about it. When I fooled around with it
it seemed nice. I liked a little more than the Eclipse VE. I code my
GUI's by hand because I feel comfortable doing it this way.

As far as plugins for Eclipse. No big deal now a days. You can either
download the plugin, a zip file, and just unpack it into the Eclipse
file structure and reboot Eclipse with the -clean option.. Or you can
get the plugin update HTTP address and just add to Eclipse plugin
updates and retrieve it that way. And finally they just started the
'Callisto' project. Because of all of the requirements for other plugins
and their release level for some plugins you may install using Callisto.
This way you have all of the plugins you need and they are all at the
correct required release level. Netbeans also has plugins you can add to
the IDE.

I know Netbeans has a plugin to import and convert Eclipse projects into
Netbeans projects. I have used it and have both IDEs. I seem to remember
seeing a plugin to import and convert JBuilder projects to Netbeans
projects.

Since both are free you may want to give them a try and test both on
your own. IDE's wars have a tendency to be very subjective.

Eclipse VE
http://www.eclipse.org/vep/WebContent/main.php

Other GUI builders for Eclipse
http://eclipse-plugins.2y.net/eclipse/search.jsp?query=Gui+Builder

Netbeans Matisse
http://www.netbeans.org/kb/articles/matisse.html

Thanks in Advance...
IchBin, Pocono Lake, Pa, USA http://weconsultants.phpnet.us
__________________________________________________________________________

'If there is one, Knowledge is the "Fountain of Youth"'
-William E. Taylor, Regular Guy (1952-)

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jmcgill - 27 Jul 2006 07:05 GMT

> For Eclipse they have their own Visual Editor (VE) plugin. There are
> also other free and commercial visual Editors plugins you can use. It
> has come a long way. Theirs is nice.

I would love to hear from anyone who has used VE successfully in any
kind of production environment. In fact, I wouldn't mind having a
snapshot of their config, and a good description of their java
environment and hardware.

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ali - 27 Jul 2006 13:32 GMT

> > For Eclipse they have their own Visual Editor (VE) plugin. There are
> > also other free and commercial visual Editors plugins you can use. It
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> snapshot of their config, and a good description of their java
> environment and hardware.

well i have used VE very successfully in doing my final year project
and in a research i am doing in these days,

well it was little difficult to adapt to it in the beginning but
afterword it become very easy and natural once you understand how VE
produce code for the Components it become easy to edit the code by
yourself and may be add some thing which could be tricky or hard to do
by the visual environment,

i have tried net beans too it is great and give lots of abilities but
one thing is missing there that i found in eclipse's VE which is
ability to edit the visual components codes easily

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JBuilder 2006 or Peloton?

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