Re: Java UI Woes

On Tuesday 23 July 2002 19:42, you wrote:
> I am making an app that requires a Table UI component. If I could use
> swing I would be all set with a JTable, but I can't seem to find a good
> equivalent in PJ 1.1. List doesn't cut it, so basically I am looking at
> subclassing list and making my own table, but to be honest I don't
> really want to waste my time if a workaround is available somewhere.
> Implementing the table myself will seriously eat up time I could be
> spending on my app. Any help would be appreciated :)
>
> --Matt
>

(i) Assuming your heart's set on Java:

There used to be lots of payware AWT-based replacements for Swing components,
targeted mainly at the MS 1.1 JVM, which might well work in PJ1.1. 
I've never bothered with them, but a quick google should turn up lots if you
want to check them out.


Espial espresso is quite good, free trial - as far as I recall, it's got a 
good range of components, but it's a while since I looked at it, and I 
honestly can't remember if it had a direct JTable analogue.

http://www.espial.com/index.php?page=prod_espresso_over


If you feel enthusiastic, you can adapt some open-source bits -i had quite 
good results a while back with the "knife dog gui" lightweight component set 
on an iPAQ running a PJ environment, it will probably work fine on a Zaurus 
too - it does not have a table/grid per se, but it's multicolumn listview and 
treeview are decent and may do what you want: 

http://dog.net.uk/knife/gui.html


BISS-AWT also includes some extended AWT widgets - I have not
experimented with getting [relevant parts of] BISS-AWT working on the zaurus.
Again, no table/grid, just multicolumn list/treeviews.

http://www.biss-net.com/biss-awt.html


*It may not as much work as you think to implement your own lightweight 
table/grid widget, particularly if it's only for a single purpose.



(ii)  not limited to Java

Javascript:

Alternatively, one could investigate Opera's ecmascript support to
see if you could do your whole app in it - certain classes of app
(all UI and no trousers :-) work quite well - since the Zaurus programming 
model is semi-persistent (i.e. standby mode is not a reset), one can often 
get away with keeping all the data a process needs in its memory space, 
rather than worrying about file I/O, with the caveat that things will be 
erased if the user closes the browser window. It's quite a cool way to knock 
up quick apps...

PyQt:

Easy, but somewhat bulky, allows the use of all of  Qt from an easy language. 
 The whitespace-sensitive syntax drives me insane, but most people don't mind 
it, and you can develop comfortably on your Zaurus with it
. 
http://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk/pyqt/index.php


Qt C++ :
Just bite the bullet. Powerful, yet easier than virtually any other C++ 
toolkit, Qt feels a little like the Java APIs, but neater, and for C++  :-)
If you don't already have a desktop linux installation, though, you might
want to think about one, on windows AFAIK you'll need MSVC++ too...

http://www.trolltech.com/






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