I was looking through the release notes and noticed that you use this L&F library so I checked it out on their web page. Either my Jaikoz isn’t working correctly or you’re only allowing two l&f to be selected? Shouldn’t the Preferences->Appearance->Appearance drop down be showing a bunch more options or should this post be in the Wishlist forum? All I see are Windows and Cross Platform.
-Mark
Hi Mark, we use the JGoodies Windows LAF rather than the default Windows LAF, but it appears in the Preferences/Apperance dropdown as Windows. This fixes a number of problems with the default Windows LAF.
In a very early version of Jaikoz there were more look and feels available, but there were two problems with this approach.
For these reasons I only provide a native look and feel which most customers use, and a cross platform look and feel which is sometimes preferred by customers who use jaikoz on multiple operating systems.
I understand.
However, you should put in a bug with the JGoodies authors as that goes against the entire Java Look and Feel concept. You should not have to modify your code at all, nor should there be anything for the customers to understand beyond how to change the look and feel in the preferences.
If there are bugs or issues with how the jgoodies library works the authors should be notified so they can fix it. They may have already.
Perhaps you could make it an unsupported option for advanced users? A sort of use at your own risk option. You wouldn’t even need to expose the option through the UI, maybe just add a lf.showall option in the properties file.
Just asking, I’d understand if you didn’t want to do it.
-Mark
[quote=paultaylor]Hi Mark, we use the JGoodies Windows LAF rather than the default Windows LAF, but it appears in the Preferences/Apperance dropdown as Windows. This fixes a number of problems with the default Windows LAF.
In a very early version of Jaikoz there were more look and feels available, but there were two problems with this approach.
For these reasons I only provide a native look and feel which most customers use, and a cross platform look and feel which is sometimes preferred by customers who use jaikoz on multiple operating systems.[/quote]
Im not you do, we ARE using JGoodies Windows LAF , its just listed as ‘Windows’ rather than ‘JGoodies Windows LAF’ because that wouldnt mean much to most users, and there would be little point having a JGoodies Windows LAF and a Windows LAF.
As for the bugs, well in some cases there are differences and whether or not it is a bug depends upon your perspective. It would be great to be able to swap LAFs without any issues, but that just isnt the reality with complex applications
We dont provide JGoodies Plastic LAF because I dont think it adds much to most customers, but maybe I will add it in the future and others as ‘skins’
Thanks for considering it, that is the LAF I was specifically wanting and I think it adds quite a lot to the LAF of the application overall.
-Mark
I’ve just remembered, this is the default on the linux version of Jaikoz - Id be interested to know why you prefer it to the Windows LAF.
The PlasticXP and Plastic3D LAF just look SO much better than the Windows LAF. It makes the entire application look and feel better. Of course YMMV depending on your system and I can only speak for my preferences on my computer but the difference for me is truly striking. Just look at some of the web start demos on their web site, amazingly better.
-Mark