Member Avatar for ervineuer

Im looking for the "best" GUI builder for java.

I use Eclipse to write my scripts, and i would appreciate you guys telling me your favourite GUI Builder and the reasons why.

Thanks

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by jwenting
Member Avatar for JamesCherrill

I've been building Java GUIs since the mid 90's and in my opinion the best builder is no builder.
Yes, you can drag and drop a pile of controls into a layout, and get a few hundred lines of incomprehensible code, but as soon as you start to think about re-sizing behaviour or multiple target screen resolutions it all goes Pete Tong. It's a total maintenance nightmare.
If it's a simple dialog just stick with a default BorderLayout with a simple sub JPanel or two.
Anything more complicated then draw it out on paper and be sure where all the underlying grid lines are and how they should move on a re-size. Then code it using a GridBagLayout.

Member Avatar for rproffitt

I have to agree with JamesCherrill as that has been my experience. Java with GUI can run on so many different devices so a GUI builder has yet to handle re-sizing and more (see JC's answer.)

May as well dig in and learn how to do it right from the beginning.

Member Avatar for jwenting

I've tried several, and the only one I kinda like is the one provided by IntelliJ.
It seems to create the least convoluted code, but as anything it takes time to learn to use properly.

commented: I've recently learned that many today haven't learned to swim, ride a bike, etc. +16
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