SnapKit VS FlatLaf

SnapCode is actually using SnapKit (https://github.com/reportmill/SnapKit) which can run on either WebAPI/DOM (in browser) or Swing (desktop). In the browser this helps slim the download and improve performance by using more browser native code.

For pricing, SnapCode is free for individual use and will remain so. Perhaps there will be funding opportunities from large organizations or for embedding use cases to help provide for the continued health of the product and community.

The new kid on the block is SnapKit: https://github.com/reportmill/SnapKit

Theres a bit more to it than that, since you want resetUI to update all of your components without triggering respondUI(). And you want all your components to be automatically configured to call respondUI() when there is user interaction.

I’ve written one of these before, but I don’t have access to a public version anymore. I do all my current UI dev in a UI kit built on top of Swing. But here is what I use there that solves this problem:

https://github.com/reportmill/SnapKit/blob/master/src/snap/v...

I use SnapKit to do Java desktop development which compiles easily to JavaScript using TeaVM. SnapKit is both modern and conventional, a good middle ground between Swing and JavaFX. But most importantly, it combines the traditional win of desktop Java UI dev with the ease of web deployment.

    SnapKit: 

Repo: https://github.com/reportmill/SnapKit

JVM UI isn't so bad. I've written some pretty modern looking UI with it. The sophisticated controls are all there.

Modern JavaFX theme: https://github.com/mkpaz/atlantafx

Modern Swing theme: https://github.com/JFormDesigner/FlatLaf

And these days Compose Multiplatform: https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/compose-multiplatform/

I tend to use Kotlin rather than Java but of course Java is perfectly fine too. You can also use Clojure.

If you use any of those frameworks you can distribute to Win/Mac/Linux in one command with Conveyor. It's free for open source apps and can do self-signing for Windows if you don't want to pay for the certificates or the Store (but the Store is super cheap these days, $19 one off payment for an individual). Also supports Electron and Flutter if you want to use those.

From those frameworks you can then access whatever parts of the Windows API you want. Flutter even has WinRT bindings these days! So it's not quite so bad.

FlatLaf, a modern open-source cross-platform Look and Feel for Java Swing desktop applications, brings exciting new features in versions 3.0 and 3.1 🎉 😀

Here’s the link to the “extras” subproject, and there you’ll find a section on the “UI Inspector” tool.

Swing with FlatLaf - https://github.com/JFormDesigner/FlatLaf

Take a look at FlatLAF:

https://github.com/JFormDesigner/FlatLaf

They have done a great job bringing a modern appearance to the Swing components.

Creating your own Look and Feel is a huge task (just look at the size of e.g. the FlatLaf code.

I too find it a bit frustrating at HiDPI. Best I've come up with is to use https://github.com/JFormDesigner/FlatLaf

And as far as Swing's aesthetics, I only agree with the sentiment that 'it's ugly' if a custom LAF isn't used, like one from flatlaf.