SWT Detractors, Rejoice...
... for it doesn't work with the newly updated Java SE 6 On The Mac:
Chris Adamson: I think you have that backwards. Apple's JVM has been Cocoa-based for a while now (since 1.4). SWT is Carbon-based. And even that wasn't a deal-breaker before. The real problem seems to be that:
- The new JVM is 64-bit Intel-only
- You can't mix 64-bit and 32-bit code in an OSX process
- Carbon is 32-bit only and apparently will remain that way
- SWT is Carbon-based
For what it's worth, QuickTime for Java won't work on the Mac's Java 6 for exactly the same reason. Carbon is de facto (but not de jure) deprecated, and therefore any Java libraries that use Carbon are in big trouble.
Jess Holle:
Nigel wrote:
> wow, the thread http://www.eclipsezone.com/eclipse/forums/t97750.html
> has been locked down because they didn't like people telling them that
> SWT was a bad idea....For most use cases and development, SWT seems to be one of those ideas whose time has come and gone...
I'm sure porting SWT from 32-bit Carbon to 64-bit Cocoa is something that is doable but will require some time and effort. The question is: "Is it being done?"
It seems it's time for Eclipse users to be patient, as Swing users were patient in the last ten years.