Visual Java Programming

Question

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Drag and Drop Java GUI

Hi about 3 months ago I started learning programming for the first time using Java as my first programming language and recently I started learning SWING and AWT for GUI.My aim is building a board game RISK for my final exam at college.Last week a friend of mine suggested I should try to switch to C# because building the GUI is very easy by using Visual Studio and learning it is easy if you know Java and OOP concepts.

To be honest the idea dosen't really intrigues me because at some point I would like to learn to build websites using JSP and Android applications.From what I know it is not posible in C# , but the idea of building fast GUI's is something I would like considering of course it is recommended for a beginner to do that.

Are there any IDE's for Java that can be used to program GUI's visually in C# ?I should also mention the fact that I'm in a bit of a hurry to finish my game project so I can start learning what I really like , like web development and application for smart phones.

Should I use a visual GUI builder for java if I'm in the process of learning programming? I already know how to use most swing objects in small programms but never tryed to build any large scale applications

Answer 1

Both .NET and Java have several extremely powerful GUI designers, but to answer you question directly - if you really do not have time/will to learn yet another language (C# in this case), then stick to Java and do GUI design using:

1. NetBeans (http://www.netbeans.org , free)
2. Eclipse WindowBuilder (http://www.eclipse.org, free)
3. IntelliJ IDEA (http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/, "free")

ANY of these can be used for development of the game you mentioned in the original post.

Answer 2

Eclipse has some nice Visual editors but I personally recommend NetBeans

Good luck Regards

Answer 3

There are a number of Java IDEs that allow you to visually create GUIs, so I can't see that there's a need to switch to C# so that you can use Visual Studio (though, in my experience, the editor in Visual Studio was slightly better than the Java ones).

However, if you really wanted to (I wouldn't suggest it, especially if you've already dedicated some development time to your project already), Java and C# are similar enough that you shouldn't struggle to make the switch, assuming you have reasonably good Java programming skills.