Why Bother with SWT?

Interesting thoughts on SWT vs Swing.

I pretty much agree.

Swing performance/appearance is pretty shitty on OS X.

SWT is even worse.

I’ve always considered the basic design principles behind the Swing approach to a cross-platform UI toolkit to be superior to the SWT approach (which strikes me as much more similar to the original AWT).

The idea of providing a cross-platform API for any OS’s native GUI toolkit sounds good in principle… but ultimately, IMO, the Swing model of a pure Java GUI toolkit rendered on a single native graphics area wins.

Dealing with changes to the underlying OS is just infinitely easier to deal with in the Swing model. As we see Apple changing processors and Microsoft overhauling its OS, this becomes painfully clear.