Sort of. The components are actually Swing components (see
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/index.html for a
tutorial). You don't need NetBeans to use them but NetBeans has a drag
and drop GUI builder which lets you arrange the components on a form
and writes the code needed to instantiate them at run time.

I don't know Delphi but I imagine that Borland's JBuilder would make
your transition to Java easier because the user interface would be
more familiar. The foundation edition is a free download from
http://www.borland.com/products/downloads/download_jbuilder.html#.

There is a penalty for the choice of tools. There is no standard for
storing the extra data that the IDE needs. You can move the source
code from, say, JBuilder to NetBeans and the program will still work
as expected. However, the NetBeans GUI designer will have no idea
about the forms you have designed so you will only be able to change
them by changing the code.

hi-
i cant make up my mind.

netbeans looks good but i heard swt/jface is a little easier and faster
than swing used in netbeans.  so eclipse is also looking good.
i am looking over the swt designer commerical product.  on the roadmap
they have database support is coming soon.
on the other hand i heard that swt/jface is non-standard and this
makes deployment much more difficult.  i plan on only developing
for windows (because that is all i know).

i heard people arguing that deployment isnt really that big of
an issue with swt/jface.  

"There's very little deployment hassle, to be honest. A DLL and a jar
file - it's not terribly difficult."

how hard is it to generate a dll and a jar file.  are there tools to
help with this?  is this needed with every swt/jface deployment?

what are your thoughts on the trade off of deployment vs.
ease of use and speed?

please give me some insight.
thanks very much,
jim