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Try GWT and an associated GUI designer like Instantiations. I have used GWT but not the gui designers myself. GWT works pretty well for certain things. The Google Closure JS libraries can provide nice GUI (the stuff used to build google apps) if you want to work purely in JavaScript. As for Delphi/VB esque components like data grids, try ExtGWT, a rich gui library for GWT. Though I question the wisdom of trying to build a desktop style GUI on the web as I suspect one reason people like web apps is their typically simpler UI paradigms.

Producing such things in flash is much easier, doing it in dhtml/ajax is a lot more work, not least of all because of how far msie is behind other browsers when it comes to these things, also the performance is seriously lacking (again, primarily in microsoft's antiquated browser)...

Unless you use something like GWT to ease the pain of developing cross-browser DHTML/JS applications. There's even a WYSIWYG editor for it.

What I really want to do it write an application like a gui where I write in a single language (c++/Java/whatever) and it deals with the browser and the server and I don't have to think about it, when a button is clicked this function is called, if it's on the server, great, if it's on the browser fine. Wt is very close. What it is missing is the graphical designer that Qt has. Add that and it will be quite the tool!

Yeah, it would be great if there were just some UI designer tools available ....

This sounds kind of like ASP.NET development, minus the integrated IDE. Also, it's not particularly clear how to roll this out to my favorite hosted environment.

Yeah, no integrated IDE available.

GWT isn't a traditional Javascript framework. It doesn't have if...else clauses meant to give browser compatibility, but rather optimized chunks of heavily optimized Javascript which are selected based on locale and browser on initial load.

It's not fair to say that GWT has the same disadvantages as toolkits like Dojo, Ext, Prototype, etc, since it's really not the same thing.

Also, it's one of the few open "Web 2.0" frameworks to have a really nice visual designer available.

Some people prefer IntelliJ (Java), for example. In the case of Lisp, Java, Smalltalk, Forth and version control there seems to be a tools market.

  If you have a vendor that delivers a superior product, why not pay? Isn't that, in the end, like paying for "support" in the FLOSS world? I think so. In fact, vendors will sell you support packages.

I believe there's a sweet spot in there between price and functionality unrivaled by open source tools. Some developers have been able to find it (IntelliJ, for example), others haven't. As with any business, there's a lot of marketing to it. I think UNA's strategy is smart: let the users try the free version and if they like it, and they're not cheapskates, they might upgrade to the collaborative version.

OTOH some vendors charge way too much, that's true (like $ 8000, IIRC, for Smalltalk VisualAge 7: http://www.instantiations.com/VAST/index.html).

-- but wait, we already have that stuff on eclipse. Still, he could do it for Mono.....

Our Excelsior JET and Instantiation's JOVE are two native compilers that support whole program optimization, though in JOVE it is the only compilation mode available. Execution profile may as well be used by an AOT (ahead-of-time) compiler, though I am not aware of the availability of such implementations.

Don't forget that Java can be compiled to native binaries. Although I would not assume that normal Java performance would be inadequate, especially with JDK 1.4, its nice to know that in a pinch, you can compile to native -- both on Windows and Unix. See TowerJ and GCJ and Jove among others.

Well, I'm not one to defend Java (I've only recently started doing OOP, but the more I use Java the more I get curious about Smalltalk), but it's worth noting that there are some good Java refactoring tools. I currently use JRefactory, largely because it's free (speech) and works with the IDE I'm using; another interesting one is jFactor.

--Moss

This is a .sig.
Now there are two of them.

Apparently the technology behind SuperCede was folded into Instantians' JOVE product.

Anyway, native compilers are out there...

Apparently the technology behind SuperCede was folded into Instantians' JOVE product.

Anyway, native compilers are out there...

Didn't know it was so cheap now. :) Haven't tried WINE, I use VMWare. Instantiations are in deep with Borland from rumors I've heard, so I wouldn't be surprised. Jove itself was written in Java and then self optimised. I cannot see why there could not be a Linux version generated if there was a market.

JOVE