How to Use Objects: Code and Concepts

Chapter 9. Structuring Applications with Graphical Interfaces

Chapter 7 introduced the technical and conceptual basis for building user interfaces using the SWT framework that comes with Eclipse. At the core, development comprises two aspects: setting up a widget tree with layout information to create the visual appearance, and attaching event-listeners to the individual widgets to implement the application’s reaction to user input. Although this seems simple enough, this basis alone is too weak for building larger applications: Since the application’s functionality tends to be scattered throughout event-listeners, one will almost certainly end up with a code base that cannot be maintained, extended, and ported to different platforms—in other ...