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Java SE 6 Update 10 Beta – A Desktop Release?

April 4, 2008 on 8:58 am | Tags: gui, Java, look, nimbus | In Development, General, gui, Java | No Comments

Java has been around a long time now and had a lot of success – at server side at most. Issues that still wait for being solved are discussed with each release, one of them is desktop integration. Swing is nice – at least since NetBeans integrated the Matisse GUI editor – but has looked awful for a long time. With Java SE 6 update 10 Nimbus found its way into the Java SE: Nimbus is a vector based look and feel and can therefore support many resolutions in arbitrary steps. Furthermore it is claimed that it is D3D accelerated and therefore a lot faster than standard L&Fs. That was interesting enough for me to take a look at the beta release

In the middle of below image you find the Nimbus theme, surrounded by JGoodies Plastic (on the left) and the standard XP one on the right (a click on the image reveals the full resolution version). What I found out is:

• Nimbus takes a lot more space, there is more empty space in between combobox items, etc.
• I didn’t manage to remove all borders from buttons, as can be seen in the top button row with white background.
• Focus and progress is painted nicely, it looks appealing.
• the menu items in nimbus look strange in combination with the icons, the gap between icon and text is too small.