Review: Java Workshop 1.0

Java Workshop is Sunsoft's answer to the question of what IDE (integrated development environment) to use with Java. First and foremost the workshop is written Java thus delievering some amount of credence to its use, although I have not been able to discover how to use an alternate VM to execute the environment. It would be nice to be able to run the workshop using the JIT VM in Visual J++.

At first the environment seemed somewhat foreign. I have programmed primarily in non-IDE environments, getting by with Emacs integrated with GDB and SCCS. However, I have also used Visual C++ 4.0, Visual Basic 4.0, and Borland C++ 3.1. Java Workshop is much different from all these environments.

Here is an applet generated with Java Workshop:

If your browser recognized the applet tag, you would see an applet here.

SocketClient.java (modified generated template)
SocketClientMain.java (generated)
SocketClientOps.java (generated)
SocketClientRoot.java (generated)

It took about an hour to throw this together from the time I loaded up the workshop till it was running flawlessly. The code underlying the interface was already written, it needed only to be transferred into the generated code. There were only a few snags in the creation of the interface, all minor and mostly misunderstandings on my part. I did, however, get some NullPointerException's during the specification of actions for the filtered events. These exceptions did not crash the workshop, nor did they cause me to start over. I would demand though that this bug be removed in the final version.

The visual layout editor is very easy to use and much like Visual Basic; each component has a property sheet where you define everything from the behavior of the object with respect to stimulous to the color of said object. For instance, when I was implementing the behavior of the text field component, I created a new event object with filter event 'Key Down' and key 'Return'. The action for this filter I specified as some custom code to send the contents of the field to the server and then erase the field. All very straight-forward.

The only real disadvantage I can see to using the workshop for all my development is the rather limited editor, the speed of the package in general, and the custom classes it uses for the AWT that must be included with each application/applet that you create using the visual editor.

The advantages include: not writing much code, the visual editor is really good; nice object model for all the components; easy event mapping; written in Java; nice interface. I actually enjoy using the workshop.

My conclusion? Use Java Workshop for cross-platform development for in-house intranet applications and applets for increased functionality and maintainability.

Sam Pullara
spullara@suba.com

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