Java, GUI builder or hand coding? [closed]

Answer 1

This is my experience:

I never liked the code the GUI builder generated. At least, it's not like in the VB world that everyone (well, almost) will use the same IDE for building apps. In Java, people use several IDEs, and some use VIM and Notepad too. And all IDEs don't generate the same kind of code. And another problem is, they don't usually understand the code generated by other IDEs. So to answer your 1st question, I don't recommend.

Your next question: Which builder is better? The last time I used, Netbeans was better than most of them I tried.

If you must use a GUI builder because you need to develop applications faster, then make sure all of your team members are using the same builder. It's better to get their opinion on this, otherwise their eyes are gonna get hurt by the IDE generated source code.

Let us know your decision!

Answer 2

I've been doing both recently - I'm using Netbeans, and was initially frustrated by the lack of control of generated code. I then discovered that you can add custom code from the GUI builder, which overcame most of the issues. However, I became more frustrated by the layout manager in NetBeans, and found this was hurting my productivity more than anything. I've switched to using MiGLayout and doing most of the coding by hand now. Having said that, NetBeans overall is pretty good, and perhaps I should have spent more time learning the GroupLayout.

If you are doing team development, make sure you are all using the same tool if relying on a GUI builder.

Answer 3

I've used Netbeans in the past to build GUI code and used Eclipse to write the program logic. Just include the GUI code as a separate LINKED source folder.

Answer 4

If your forms are simple and not dynamic then a GUI builder is perfect. The more complex the form the less benefits you will get from using GUI builder.

The company I work for does just that. Simpler apps are developed with the GUI builder and more complex apps are done by hand. Once there are enough hours trying to work around the GUI builder's limitations it is usually abandoned. Also each GUI builder is not created equally so it will take some evaluating on your part to determine under which situations a GUI builder is appropriate. (The NetBeans GUI Builder is pretty good.)

Personally I like to use GUI builders to come up with the overall layout of and app/form and play with the different layouts but then I convert that to more readable code and do the rest by hand.