The API wars: rich client apps in Java?

As opposed to web apps, which he did mention? Maybe it's just me, but is it becoming more and more viable by the day?

I'm just starting to dabble in Eclipse, and it looks like a damn fine app.

Klodd the Insensitive
Thursday, June 17, 2004

Yeah, Eclipse doesn't use Swing :)

Green Pajamas
Thursday, June 17, 2004

Have you seen this?

http://www.ftponline.com/javapro/2002_12/magazine/columns/proshop/

Klodd the Insensitive
Thursday, June 17, 2004

Eclipse still manages to hang for long periods of
time. Hate that.

son of parnas
Thursday, June 17, 2004

Parnas Jr: do you run it under Linux? I hear the Sun JVM has some latency problems under 2.4.x Linux kernels -- hopefully more spiffy under 2.6.x.

Klodd the Insensitive
Thursday, June 17, 2004

I remember, I tried Eclipse under RedHat Linux 9. I had to do some C++ coding. It was dead slow. Although, it was a bit impressive on Windows, but who needs it there :).

Green Pajamas
Thursday, June 17, 2004

> Parnas Jr: do you run it under Linux?

Still under NT. I am waiting for g5 mac portables  :-)

son of parnas
Thursday, June 17, 2004

Try again.  Java on the client sucks.  Every desktop app I've ever used that was implemented in Java has been S......L.........O...........W

AMS
Thursday, June 17, 2004

On the contrary I don't meet many Swing apps that are slow. But memory hungry? Oh yeah!

Gobledigook
Thursday, June 17, 2004

AMS - When's the last time you acually used a Java app on the desktop?  The slow argument is really no longer valid.  Memory hungry, yes.  Slow, not really.

ac
Thursday, June 17, 2004

I used one yesterday. It sits there. Press button. It sits there. I remind myself, this is Java. Give it a minute. I think, dumb users would probably click click and get all mixed up. I am confirmed for another year that Java sucks.

Sucking since 1995
Thursday, June 17, 2004

Sucking since 1995,  perhaps it's your 'APP' that sucks,  not the platform it's written for.  Sheesh, people don't go blaming VB every time some idiot does syncronous network calls in a single-threaded application.

Troll
Thursday, June 17, 2004

I use applications written in Java every day. They are a bit slow to start up, but are fine after that -- except for occasional GC pauses.

The main problem with Java on the client is that it uses memory like water... and, of course, you have to get the client to install a VM.

Java Guy
Thursday, June 17, 2004

The last time I've used a Java client app is the 2004 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica DVD. While not too slow, the interface is definitely inferior to a native Windows GUI -- ugly fonts, prone to flickering, lack of the XP mouse-over indicators that I'm used to.

Chris Nahr
Friday, June 18, 2004

> you have to get the client to install a VM

Is that really an issue these days? I thought just about everbody had a JVM sitting on their machine by now.

Friday, June 18, 2004

"when's the last time you actually used a Java app on the desktop"

Lately I've been using Oracle's enterprise management tools, which are all Java apps.  Their Win32-based competitors (TOAD, et. al.) run rings around them in terms of user interface responsiveness.

I have a 1 Ghz P4 with 512 MB RAM that I use most often.

I *have* used some java-based utilities which don't involve a GUI and they are much more acceptable.

AMS
Monday, June 21, 2004

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