Java SWT Programming

Over the past two years I have been working on a pair of engineering programs for a group of water gate manufacturers.  With the help of a veteran engineer as the voice of the customer I created these form-based programs to help design a specific water gate and gate hoist.  The two programs were very similar in their functionality including:

• An initial menu for choosing program direction


• A screen to retrieve previous program runs


• A password-protected table editor for adding and changing gate components


• A series of screens for entering details and selecting options


• A final page to view and print a formatted report compiling the data and calculations entered in the program.

Since I was working on a Linux (Ubuntu) machine and the program was needed to run on Windows desktop I opted for Java SWT to be able to compile versions for both operating systems.  Using Eclipse Plug-in Development for a framework allowed me to work in my preferred IDE while providing a number of desktop components out of the box.  Wrapping the whole thing up with an NSIS installer/uninstaller made for easy distribution.