This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Geoffrey Wiseman. Original Post: Swing: Difficult to use well? Feed Title: Furious Purpose Feed URL: http://www.jroller.com/diathesis/feed/entries/rss Feed Description: Thoughts and experiences on technology and software. Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Geoffrey Wiseman Latest Posts From Furious Purpose

I'm not going to start a Swing zealotry war here, really, I'm not. And I'm certainly not going to start comparing it to SWT. However, I've seen a lot of people defend Swing over the past few years and I've got something to say.

Any API that is 'rarely used properly' has problems. APIs can encourage good uses, and they can encourage bad uses. When you say "It's really rather great, only, people don't really know how to use it." What you're really saying, at least to my ears, is that the underlying functionality is there, but the API design needs a lot of work.

So, defend Swing all you like. Heck, we've all seen decent applications written in Swing. At least, if you've actually bothered to look, but there are some fundamental problems there or there wouldn't be so many bad examples out there, would there?