Making Windows a better place to be

Many developers including me are forced to use Windows at work due to various corporate reasons even when our work has nothing to do with Microsoft technologies. And we are all stuck with that terrible Command Prompt or a Power Shell which are crap compared to a proper terminal. However, there is a way to have a fully functional Unix terminal in Windows thanks to Cygwin and a patched version of Putty. 

I am doing this for several years and this is one of the first things I do in any Windows machine that I want to do some software development on, so it's time to come up with a little tutorial.

Setting up Cygwin and PuttyCyg

Getting Cygwin

Go to http://www.cygwin.com to download and run the setup.exe. Installation process is illustrated in screenshots below.

 

I suggest you installing cygwin directly to C:\cygwin as it's recommended. It's a significant part of your system and it is really worth the place in C:\ directly.

Cygwin offers "C:\Windows\System32" as a place for local packages, however I don't like that idea and keep it all under "C:\cygwin".

Some mirrors were failing for me with missing packages so I choose a respectable source and deal with slower download speed in exchange for reliability.

Choosing packages may take a while. You can go with default selection, however going through the long list is worth a while if you want to have goodies like vim, curl, ping, openssh, mc and so on.

Now go make yourself some coffee.

Don't add any icons or shortcuts because they open cygwin in that ugly command prompt we are about to get rid of.

Introducing Cygwin to your Windows

Now that you have the Cygwin, try it out by launching C:\cygwin\cygwin.bat. You will see something like this.

As you can see, a few files can be modified to configure your environment. Keep them in mind for future:

• ~/.bashrc
• ~/.bash_profile
• ~/.inputrc

Now append these to the beginning of your Windows PATH environmental variable:

C:\cygwin\usr\local\bin;C:\cygwin\usr\bin;C:\cygwin\bin;

Run a fresh Command Prompt (if you are using Launchy or a similar program to run the cmd.exe, you have to restart it before the new PATH applies to programs you run.) and you will be able to do the following:

That's just a small benefit you get from cygwin, but it's handy to have unix commands anywhere in the system. If you think that cmd.exe is enough to enjoy unix commands, you are wrong. It fails to resize properly, it's hard to copy and paste. Compare using Putty with a remote machine to using Command Prompt on your local Windows box, It's like day and night.

Getting PuttyCyg

Get the latest puttycyg from http://code.google.com/p/puttycyg/. For the past year it's this one: http://puttycyg.googlecode.com/files/puttycyg-20090811.zip. You can put it in c:\cygwin\puttycyg to avoid a mixup with the original Putty if you use it.

Configuring PuttyCyg to access local cygwin

Create a shortcut to putty.exe from the puttycyg pack that you just extracted.

Run it to configure the local connection. Check "Cygterm" in Connection type and enter a minus (-) in Command.

Be sure to go to Window configuration and set Lines of scrollback to something more reasonable than the default 200.

Save the settings. Name the session "localhost".

Now click "Open" to test the configuration. You should see a working terminal.

You can now enhance the shortcut you created earlier to load the "localhost" session automatically. Just append "-load localhost" to the end of Target.

You're all set. A few resources to get you familiar with Cygwin:

• Cygwin User's Guide
• An introduction to Cygwin
• Lifehacker: Introduction to Cygwin

Screw all GUI builders

Are you making your GUI with a builder? Do you like the generated code you get? I hate it. Even though I like the idea of building GUI with visual means (WYSIWYG), I can't stand the mess that code generators produce. In addition to that, there are more serious downsides:

• You don't know how exactly the generated code works. You don't need to. You start not to care and GUI application development becomes a process of drawing and adding simple event handlers here and there.


• Most GUI builders force you to use single class for single window, so generated classes tend to have thousands of lines of code.


• Most GUI builders don't want you to modify the generated code. And if you do, they either break or rewrite your code.


• GUI builders force you to use an IDE, mostly one you started coding with. So if you start with NetBeans, you most likely be forced to stay with it for the whole project.


• The generated code is far from being optimal. It's not resize-friendly, not dynamic enough, it has many hard-coded values, refactoring is most likely impossible, because builder would not allow that.

So, why are you using GUI builders? Is it because you're doing GUI apps during your day job, you need fast results and you don't want to learn more than you have to? Or you just have no choice? That's reasonable, but when you have a choice, consider learning how Swing or SWT works, spend some time reading the API docs and examining the code - it's amazing how fast and dynamic your GUI building process can get when you finally get a clear understanding HOW to use all the widgets and layouts. Let me show you. Here's a window from Hawkscope app that I'm making in my spare time. It was generated with Jigloo GUI builder in Eclipse. First let's see how it looks:



The code (all comments removed):

package com.varaneckas.hawkscope.gui;

import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.MouseAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.MouseEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.PaintEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.PaintListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Color;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Cursor;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.FormAttachment;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.FormData;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.FormLayout;
import org.eclipse.swt.program.Program;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Button;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Canvas;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Label;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Shell;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Text;

import com.cloudgarden.resource.SWTResourceManager;
import com.varaneckas.hawkscope.Version;
import com.varaneckas.hawkscope.cfg.ConfigurationFactory;
import com.varaneckas.hawkscope.util.IOUtils;
import com.varaneckas.hawkscope.util.IconFactory;
import com.varaneckas.hawkscope.util.OSUtils;

public class AboutWindow extends org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Dialog {
    
    private Shell dialogShell;
    private Canvas logoCanvas;
    private Label appNameLabel;
    private Label appSloganLabel;
    private Label appVersion;
    private Label appHomepageValue;
    private Button copyReportButton;
    private Button closeButton;
    private Label environmentLabel;
    private Text environmentTextArea;
    private Label appHomepageLabel;
    private Label appReleasedValue;
    private Label appReleasedLabel;
    private Label appVersionValue;

    public AboutWindow(final Shell parent, final int style) {
        super(parent, style);
    }

    public synchronized void open() {
        if (dialogShell != null && !dialogShell.isDisposed()) {
            dialogShell.setVisible(true);
            dialogShell.forceFocus();
            return;
        }
        final Shell parent = getParent();
        dialogShell = new Shell(parent, SWT.DIALOG_TRIM 
                | SWT.APPLICATION_MODAL);
        {
            SWTResourceManager.registerResourceUser(dialogShell);
        }
        dialogShell.setImage(IconFactory.getInstance()
                .getUncachedIcon("hawkscope16.png"));
        dialogShell.setText("About");
        
        dialogShell.setLayout(new FormLayout());
        dialogShell.layout();
        dialogShell.pack();            
        dialogShell.setSize(516, 322);
        {
            copyReportButton = new Button(dialogShell, SWT.PUSH | SWT.CENTER);
            FormData copyReportButtonLData = new FormData();
            copyReportButtonLData.width = 125;
            copyReportButtonLData.height = 29;
            copyReportButtonLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 314);
            copyReportButtonLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 252);
            copyReportButton.setLayoutData(copyReportButtonLData);
            copyReportButton.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
               @Override
               public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent event) {
                   IOUtils.copyToClipboard(Version.getEnvironmentReport());
               } 
            });
            copyReportButton.setText("Co&py to Clipboard");
            OSUtils.adjustButton(copyReportButton);
        }
        {
            closeButton = new Button(dialogShell, SWT.PUSH | SWT.CENTER);
            FormData closeButtonLData = new FormData();
            closeButtonLData.width = 47;
            closeButtonLData.height = 29;
            closeButtonLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 451);
            closeButtonLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 252);
            closeButton.setLayoutData(closeButtonLData);
            closeButton.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
               @Override
                public void widgetSelected(SelectionEvent event) {
                   dialogShell.dispose();
                } 
            });
            closeButton.setText("&Close");
            OSUtils.adjustButton(closeButton);
        }
        {
            environmentLabel = new Label(dialogShell, SWT.NONE);
            FormData environmentLabelLData = new FormData();
            environmentLabelLData.width = 486;
            environmentLabelLData.height = 17;
            environmentLabelLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 12);
            environmentLabelLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 127);
            environmentLabel.setLayoutData(environmentLabelLData);
            environmentLabel.setText("Environment");
            environmentLabel.setFont(SWTResourceManager.getFont("Sans", 10, 1));
        }
        {
            environmentTextArea = new Text(dialogShell, SWT.MULTI | SWT.WRAP 
                    | SWT.V_SCROLL | SWT.BORDER);
            FormData environmentTextAreaLData = new FormData();
            environmentTextAreaLData.width = 468;
            environmentTextAreaLData.height = 90;
            environmentTextAreaLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 12);
            environmentTextAreaLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 150);
            environmentTextArea.setLayoutData(environmentTextAreaLData);
            environmentTextArea.setText(Version.getSystemProperties());
            environmentTextArea.setEditable(false);
        }
        {
            appHomepageValue = new Label(dialogShell, SWT.NONE);
            appHomepageValue.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
                @Override
                public void mouseUp(MouseEvent event) {
                    Program.launch(Version.HOMEPAGE);
                } 
            });
            appHomepageValue.setCursor(new Cursor(dialogShell.getDisplay(), 
                    SWT.CURSOR_HAND));
            appHomepageValue.setForeground(
                    new Color(dialogShell.getDisplay(), 0, 0, 255));
            FormData appHomepageValueLData = new FormData();
            appHomepageValueLData.width = 242;
            appHomepageValueLData.height = 17;
            appHomepageValueLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 256);
            appHomepageValueLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 104);
            appHomepageValue.setLayoutData(appHomepageValueLData);
            appHomepageValue.setToolTipText("Click to open in browser");
            appHomepageValue.setText(Version.HOMEPAGE);
        }
        {
            appHomepageLabel = new Label(dialogShell, SWT.NONE);
            FormData appHomepageLabelLData = new FormData();
            appHomepageLabelLData.width = 94;
            appHomepageLabelLData.height = 17;
            appHomepageLabelLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 156);
            appHomepageLabelLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 104);
            appHomepageLabel.setLayoutData(appHomepageLabelLData);
            appHomepageLabel.setText("Homepage:");
            appHomepageLabel.setFont(SWTResourceManager.getFont("Sans", 10, 1));
        }
        {
            appReleasedValue = new Label(dialogShell, SWT.NONE);
            FormData appReleasedValueLData = new FormData();
            appReleasedValueLData.width = 242;
            appReleasedValueLData.height = 17;
            appReleasedValueLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 256);
            appReleasedValueLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 81);
            appReleasedValue.setLayoutData(appReleasedValueLData);
            appReleasedValue.setText(Version.VERSION_DATE);
        }
        {
            appReleasedLabel = new Label(dialogShell, SWT.NONE);
            FormData appReleasedLabelLData = new FormData();
            appReleasedLabelLData.width = 77;
            appReleasedLabelLData.height = 17;
            appReleasedLabelLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 156);
            appReleasedLabelLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 81);
            appReleasedLabel.setLayoutData(appReleasedLabelLData);
            appReleasedLabel.setText("Released:");
            appReleasedLabel.setFont(SWTResourceManager.getFont("Sans", 10, 1));
        }
        {
            appVersionValue = new Label(dialogShell, SWT.NONE);
            FormData appVersionValueLData = new FormData();
            appVersionValueLData.width = 242;
            appVersionValueLData.height = 17;
            appVersionValueLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 256);
            appVersionValueLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 58);
            appVersionValue.setLayoutData(appVersionValueLData);
            if (Version.isUpdateAvailable() == null) {
             appVersionValue.setText(Version.VERSION_NUMBER);
             if (ConfigurationFactory.getConfigurationFactory()
               .getConfiguration().checkForUpdates()) {
              appVersionValue.setToolTipText("Could not get version information.");
             }
            } else {
             if (Version.isUpdateAvailable()) {
                    appVersionValue.setForeground(new Color(dialogShell
                            .getDisplay(), 255, 0, 0));
                    appVersionValue.setText(Version.VERSION_NUMBER 
                            + " (Update Available!)");
                    appVersionValue.setToolTipText("Click to go to update " +
                      "download page");
                    appVersionValue.setCursor(new Cursor(dialogShell
                            .getDisplay(), SWT.CURSOR_HAND));
                    appVersionValue.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
                       @Override
                        public void mouseUp(MouseEvent event) {
                           Program.launch(Version.DOWNLOAD_URL);
                           dialogShell.dispose();
                        } 
                    });
                } else {
                    appVersionValue.setText(Version.VERSION_NUMBER);
                    appVersionValue.setToolTipText("Latest available version!");
                    appVersionValue.setForeground(new Color(dialogShell
                            .getDisplay(), 0, 128, 0));
                }
            }
        }
        {
            appVersion = new Label(dialogShell, SWT.NONE);
            FormData appVersionLData = new FormData();
            appVersionLData.width = 77;
            appVersionLData.height = 17;
            appVersionLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 156);
            appVersionLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 58);
            appVersion.setLayoutData(appVersionLData);
            appVersion.setText("Version:");
            appVersion.setFont(SWTResourceManager.getFont("Sans", 10, 1));
        }
        {
            appSloganLabel = new Label(dialogShell, SWT.WRAP);
            FormData appSloganLabelLData = new FormData();
            appSloganLabelLData.width = 342;
            appSloganLabelLData.height = 17;
            appSloganLabelLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 156);
            appSloganLabelLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 35);
            appSloganLabel.setLayoutData(appSloganLabelLData);
            appSloganLabel.setText(Version.APP_SLOGAN);
        }
        {
            appNameLabel = new Label(dialogShell, SWT.NONE);
            FormData appNameLabelLData = new FormData();
            appNameLabelLData.width = 342;
            appNameLabelLData.height = 17;
            appNameLabelLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 156);
            appNameLabelLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 12);
            appNameLabel.setLayoutData(appNameLabelLData);
            appNameLabel.setText("Hawkscope");
            appNameLabel.setFont(SWTResourceManager.getFont("Sans", 10, 1));
        }
        {
            final FormData logoCanvasLData = new FormData();
            logoCanvasLData.width = 114;
            logoCanvasLData.height = 109;
            logoCanvasLData.left =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 12);
            logoCanvasLData.top =  new FormAttachment(0, 1000, 12);
            logoCanvas = new Canvas(dialogShell, SWT.RESIZE);
            logoCanvas.addPaintListener(new PaintListener() {
                public void paintControl(PaintEvent e) {
                    e.gc.drawImage(IconFactory.getInstance()
                            .getUncachedIcon("hawkscope128.png"), 0, 0, 128, 
                            128, 0, 0, 114, 109);
                }
            });
            logoCanvas.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
                @Override
                public void mouseUp(MouseEvent event) {
                    Program.launch(Version.HOMEPAGE);
                } 
            });
            logoCanvas.setCursor(new Cursor(dialogShell.getDisplay(), 
                    SWT.CURSOR_HAND));
            logoCanvas.setToolTipText("Click to visit Homepage");
            logoCanvas.setLayoutData(logoCanvasLData);
        }
        dialogShell.setLocation(getParent().toDisplay(100, 100));
        dialogShell.open();
        Display display = dialogShell.getDisplay();
        while (!dialogShell.isDisposed()) {
            if (!display.readAndDispatch())
                display.sleep();
        }
    }

}

Now, a hand-rewritten version with no GUI builder:



The code:

package com.varaneckas.hawkscope.gui;

import org.eclipse.swt.SWT;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.MouseAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.MouseEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.PaintEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.PaintListener;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionAdapter;
import org.eclipse.swt.events.SelectionEvent;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Color;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Cursor;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.Font;
import org.eclipse.swt.graphics.FontData;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.FormAttachment;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.FormData;
import org.eclipse.swt.layout.FormLayout;
import org.eclipse.swt.program.Program;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Button;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Canvas;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Control;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Label;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Shell;
import org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Text;

import com.varaneckas.hawkscope.Version;
import com.varaneckas.hawkscope.cfg.ConfigurationFactory;
import com.varaneckas.hawkscope.tray.TrayManager;
import com.varaneckas.hawkscope.util.IOUtils;
import com.varaneckas.hawkscope.util.IconFactory;

public class AboutShell {
    
    private Shell shell;
    private FormData layout;
    private Font bold;
    private Color red;
    private Color green;
    private Color blue;
    private Cursor hand;
    private Canvas logo;
    private Label labelAppName;
    private Label labelAppSlogan;
    private Label labelVersion;
    private Label labelReleased;
    private Label labelHomePage;
    private Label labelAppVersion;
    private Label labelAppReleased;
    private Label labelAppHomePage;
    private Label labelEnvironment;
    private Text textEnvironment;
    private Button buttonCopyToClipboard;
    private Button buttonClose;
    
    public void open() {
        if (shell != null && !shell.isDisposed()) {
            shell.setVisible(true);
            shell.forceFocus();
            return;
        }       
        createShell();
        createResources();
        createLogo();
        createLabelAppName();
        createLabelAppSlogan();
        createLabelVersion();
        createLabelReleased();
        createLabelHomePage();
        createLabelAppVersion();
        createLabelAppReleased();
        createLabelAppHomePage();
        createLabelEnvironment();
        createButtonClose();
        createButtonCopyToClipboard();
        createTextEnvironment();
        shell.pack();
        shell.open();
    }
    
    private void createResources() {
        final FontData data = new FontData();
        data.setHeight(10);
        data.setStyle(SWT.BOLD);
        bold = new Font(shell.getDisplay(), data);
        red = new Color(shell.getDisplay(), 255, 0, 0);
        green = new Color(shell.getDisplay(), 0, 128, 0);
        blue = new Color(shell.getDisplay(), 0, 0, 255);
        hand = new Cursor(shell.getDisplay(), SWT.CURSOR_HAND);
    }
    
    private void createShell() {
        shell = new Shell(TrayManager.getInstance().getShell(), SWT.SHELL_TRIM);
        final FormLayout layout = new FormLayout();
        layout.spacing = 6;
        layout.marginHeight = 12;
        layout.marginWidth = 12;
        shell.setLocation(shell.getParent().toDisplay(100, 100));
        shell.setImage(IconFactory.getInstance()
                .getUncachedIcon("hawkscope16.png"));
        shell.setText("About");
        shell.setLayout(layout);
        shell.layout();
    }
    
    private FormData relativeTo(final Control top, final Control left) {
        layout = new FormData();
        layout.top = new FormAttachment(top);
        layout.left = new FormAttachment(left);
        return layout;
    }
    
    private FormData relativeToBottomRight(final Control right) {
        layout = new FormData();
        layout.bottom = new FormAttachment(100, 0);
        if (right == null) {
            layout.right = new FormAttachment(100, 0);
        } else {
            layout.right = new FormAttachment(right);
        }
        return layout;
    }    
    
    private void createLogo() {
        logo = new Canvas(shell, SWT.NONE);
        logo.addPaintListener(new PaintListener() {
            public void paintControl(PaintEvent e) {
                e.gc.drawImage(IconFactory.getInstance()
                        .getUncachedIcon("hawkscope128.png"), 0, 0);
            }
        });
        logo.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
            @Override
            public void mouseUp(MouseEvent event) {
                Program.launch(Version.HOMEPAGE);
            } 
        });
        logo.setCursor(hand);
        logo.setToolTipText("Click to visit Homepage");
        layout = relativeTo(null, null);
        layout.width = 128;
        layout.height = 128;
        logo.setLayoutData(layout);
    }
    
    private void createLabelAppName() {
        labelAppName = new Label(shell, SWT.NONE);
        labelAppName.setText(Version.APP_NAME);
        labelAppName.setLayoutData(relativeTo(null, logo));
        labelAppName.setFont(bold);
    }
    
    private void createLabelAppSlogan() {
        labelAppSlogan = new Label(shell, SWT.NONE);
        labelAppSlogan.setLayoutData(relativeTo(labelAppName, logo));
        labelAppSlogan.setText(Version.APP_SLOGAN);
    }
    
    private void createLabelVersion() {
        labelVersion = new Label(shell, SWT.NONE);
        labelVersion.setText("Version:");
        labelVersion.setFont(bold);
        labelVersion.setLayoutData(relativeTo(labelAppSlogan, logo));
    }
    
    private void createLabelAppVersion() {
        labelAppVersion = new Label(shell, SWT.NONE);
        labelAppVersion.setText(Version.VERSION_NUMBER);
        labelAppVersion.setLayoutData(relativeTo(labelAppSlogan, labelHomePage));
        updateLabelAppVersion();
    }
    
    private void updateLabelAppVersion() {
        if (Version.isUpdateAvailable() == null) {
            if (ConfigurationFactory.getConfigurationFactory()
                    .getConfiguration().checkForUpdates()) {
                labelAppVersion.setToolTipText("Could not get version information.");
            }
        } else {
            if (Version.isUpdateAvailable()) {
                labelAppVersion.setForeground(red);
                labelAppVersion.setText(Version.VERSION_NUMBER 
                        + " (Update Available!)");
                labelAppVersion.setToolTipText("Click to go to update " +
                        "download page");
                labelAppVersion.setCursor(hand);
                labelAppVersion.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
                   @Override
                    public void mouseUp(final MouseEvent event) {
                       Program.launch(Version.DOWNLOAD_URL);
                       shell.dispose();
                    } 
                });
            } else {
                labelAppVersion.setText(Version.VERSION_NUMBER);
                labelAppVersion.setToolTipText("Latest available version!");
                labelAppVersion.setForeground(green);
            }
        }
    }
    
    private void createLabelReleased() {
        labelReleased = new Label(shell, SWT.NONE); 
        labelReleased.setText("Released:");
        labelReleased.setFont(bold);
        labelReleased.setLayoutData(relativeTo(labelVersion, logo));
    }
    
    private void createLabelAppReleased() {
        labelAppReleased = new Label(shell, SWT.NONE);
        labelAppReleased.setText(Version.VERSION_DATE);
        labelAppReleased.setLayoutData(relativeTo(labelVersion, labelHomePage));
    }
    
    private void createLabelHomePage() {
        labelHomePage = new Label(shell, SWT.NONE); 
        labelHomePage.setText("Homepage:");
        labelHomePage.setFont(bold);
        labelHomePage.setLayoutData(relativeTo(labelReleased, logo));
    }    
    
    private void createLabelAppHomePage() {
        labelAppHomePage = new Label(shell, SWT.NONE);
        labelAppHomePage.setText(Version.HOMEPAGE);
        labelAppHomePage.setLayoutData(relativeTo(labelReleased, labelHomePage));
        labelAppHomePage.setCursor(hand);
        labelAppHomePage.setForeground(blue);
        labelAppHomePage.setToolTipText("Click to open in browser");
        labelAppHomePage.addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
            @Override
            public void mouseUp(final MouseEvent event) {
                Program.launch(Version.HOMEPAGE);
            } 
        });
    }
    
    private void createLabelEnvironment() {
        labelEnvironment = new Label(shell, SWT.NONE);
        labelEnvironment.setText("Environment");
        labelEnvironment.setFont(bold);
        labelEnvironment.setLayoutData(relativeTo(logo, null));
    }

    private void createButtonClose() {
        buttonClose = new Button(shell, SWT.PUSH);
        buttonClose.setText("&Close");
        buttonClose.setLayoutData(relativeToBottomRight(null));
        buttonClose.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
            @Override
            public void widgetSelected(final SelectionEvent event) {
                shell.dispose();
            } 
         });
    }
    
    private void createButtonCopyToClipboard() {
        buttonCopyToClipboard = new Button(shell, SWT.PUSH);
        buttonCopyToClipboard.setText("C&opy to Clipboard");
        buttonCopyToClipboard.setLayoutData(relativeToBottomRight(buttonClose));
        buttonCopyToClipboard.addSelectionListener(new SelectionAdapter() {
            @Override
            public void widgetSelected(final SelectionEvent event) {
                IOUtils.copyToClipboard(Version.getEnvironmentReport());
            } 
         });
    }
    
    private void createTextEnvironment() {
        textEnvironment = new Text(shell, SWT.MULTI | SWT.WRAP 
                | SWT.V_SCROLL | SWT.BORDER);
        textEnvironment.setText(Version.getEnvironmentReport());
        textEnvironment.setEditable(false);
        layout = relativeTo(labelEnvironment, null);
        layout.right = new FormAttachment(100, 0);
        layout.bottom = new FormAttachment(buttonClose);
        layout.width = 500;
        layout.height = 150;
        textEnvironment.setLayoutData(layout);
    }    
    
}

If you compare the two versions, handcoded one is superior in most aspects. The code is smaller, more readable and text editor friendly. The window can be resized, it is better looking - in generated code the logo image was scaled due to dragging inacuracy. And, believe it or not, I've spent less time creating the handcoded GUI version than "drawing" the automated one and then hacking it's generated code. Of course, if you know your tools well, you can be much more productive with a GUI builder, but I'll rather learn the low-level GUI API than some commercial third party product that treats you like parents treat their kids with LEGO.

No more GUI builders for me.

Hawkscope: System Tray File Browser

I'm happy to announce the first usable release of my new weekend project. It's Hawkscope - a simple productivity tool that allows you to find and open any file or folder in seconds by single-clicking a tray icon and navigating through dynamically generated menus that reflect the contents of your available file systems.

Hawkscope is open source, it's built with Java 1.6, therefore it doesn't run on Mac OS X (for now...), even with SoyLatte JDK. I tested it on Windows (XP and Vista) and Linux (Ubuntu + Gnome). Should work perfectly where Java 6 System Tray and Desktop API are supported.

Here's how it looks on Windows Vista (running inside VirtualBox):


And on my Ubuntu:


You can always download latest release here. Enjoy!

Eclipse Template: Singleton Pattern

Are you writing your Java classes as Singletons quite often? Use this Eclipse template and make any class a singleton in two seconds:

Setup

Go to Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Editor -> Templates. Create New:



Code for copy paste:
private static final ${enclosing_type} instance = new ${enclosing_type}();
private ${enclosing_type}() {}
public static ${enclosing_type} getInstance() {
    return instance;
}

Action

Type "single" or "singleton", hit Content Assist shortcut key (ctrl+space by default), then enter:



And there you go - a singleton in two seconds (actual time may vary on your typing and CPU speed).



You may want to use a different Singleton implementation. Check out Java Singleton: The Proper Way for a good example.

Add loggers to your Java code in seconds using Eclipse Templates

Custom Eclipse Templates can greatly increase your productivity by automating daily development. For instance, instead of creating Apache Commons Logging loggers by hand, you can do this:

Setup

Go to Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Editor -> Templates. Create New:



Action

Type "log", hit Content Assist shortcut key (ctrl+space by default), then enter:



Hit Ctrl+Shift+O to import Log and LogFactory:



Saves hell of a time in the long run.

What is Eclipse Mylyn anyway?

Since the release of Eclipse Europa, there was one new big feature - Mylyn. I was sceptic about it, besides it made the IDE slower, so I've kept removing it without getting to know what the hell is Mylyn anyway? After seeing this video I'm about to give it another try. If you're using Eclipse without Mylyn, you must see the video below:



Update
Mylin still sucks big time. Could not get used to it. It's most probably for people with ADD. Read the discussion in comments.