Honestly, I don’t want to jump onto the latest Swing/SWT discussions. But look at the screenshot taken 5 minutes ago on my desktop. I just wanted to try a Java Web Start application. 🙁

I had this blank windows problem before on another machine and it was a Swing/AWT application too. In fact, it’s a real pain and it only happens to Swing applications. Some weird thing the Sun JVM is doing with the graphics driver probably. Who knows. In such cases I honestly prefer SWT over everything else. It just works.

C:>java -version
java version "1.5.0_06" Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment,
Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_06-b05)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM
(build 1.5.0_06-b05, mixed mode)

The last time, I could solve the problem by upgrading the graphic cards driver. But this time I’m already on the latest version.

So come on Sun guys. What to do? I already had an eight days email conversation with the Dell hotline. Maybe you can convince them to update the graphics driver for the Inspiron 6000 notebook. Or better, can you fix Swing?

BTW, I often read and hear in this discussion that SWT is not cross-platform. Come on guys, you can’t be serious. SWT is as cross-platform as Swing. Swing wouldn’t be possible without the native code that is integrated in every JVM and must be re-implemented on every platform the JVM supports. The same is true for SWT. The native part is just not hidden in the JVM.