Slashdot Mirror
Sun's JDIC And JDNC: A Cross-Platform ActiveX?
Espectr0 writes "eWeek is reporting that last week, Sun Microsystems Inc. licensed a pair of the underlying technologies of the Java Desktop System under the open-source LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License). The two projects, JDNC (JDesktop Network Components) and JDIC (JDesktop Integration Components), are essentially to Java application developers what Microsoft's ActiveX and COM were to Windows developers--an architecture for creating easily configured application components and for integrating with the functionality of the local operating system and other applications."
Thing are getting interesting,
Sun is approaching java to desktop (hurray for them, it only took 5 years!).
Mac is publishing rendezvous for linux, win and others (after ten years of networking, will we finally get something like a 'zero' config system!?).
It seems that the non-windows side of the world is awakening!.
What's in a sig?
JDIC sounds like Sun has finally gave up "100% pure Java" principle and allows Java developers to access native functionality easily.
You always have been able to do this. Its called JNI (Java Native Interface).
It totally ignores all UI provided by client OS
No it doesn't. You can cut and paste between Swing and the client OS. You can drag and drop between Swing and and client OS. You can access Client OS information, and Client OS Print Services. There are tools available that allow you to embed ActiveX components in Swing.
which means that text boxes and file dialogs never behave correctly in Swing.
Never behave correctly? I can enter text, cut, copy, paste, reformat, edit styled text and HTML.
The file dialogs allow me to search for files and directories, filter by file types, create new directories.
How is this not 'behaving correctly'?
This is why SWT reacts 3x quicker than Swing
Yes, SWT is a good product. However, the next release of Java (out September) allows Swing to be accelerated through the use of OpenGL. That should be fast.