Java D&D development

At a customer where I work there is a lot of Powerbuilder Development. Powerbuilder is 4GL development environment, you can quickly create simple CRUD applications with the tool. Every now and then we have discussions on it. It’s really quit funny as you can’t compare client-server development with web development or desktop applications vs web applications. The example that is always given is, how long does it take to create a simple master-detail app. Okay with the new Java web frameworks (or ruby on rails) this is also done very quickly.

With my VS.NET 2005 I have a good competitor for beating them in the client-server development area. Java however didn’t stand a chance. My DAO layer can be generated but for then building a simple Swing app, I would lose by a couple of miles. Recently I noticed the Netbeans 6 M9 however. I gave it a go and I was really amazed. I had my database ready and it took me less than 3 minutes to create a simple Master-detail Swing application. According to the documentation I could create a webstart deployement within a couple of clicks. I would say “GO SUN!!”

I do hope they will extend their default swing components palette. Sorry but the ones that are in there at the moment isn’t sufficient. Common people you don’t even have a default date picker component. Well maybe this is because the default java.util.Date in Java is just broken 🙂 But just fix it, I as developer don’t like it that I have to search for these components. Just put them in their. If you compare the VS.NET 2005 controls that are available by default with the Swing components. I can see why we still aren’t that far on the desktop as on the server.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.