Standard Widget Graphics (SWG) is a cross-platform client technology comprising rich vector-graphic controls and an animation framework that are integrated with existing standard user interface (UI) controls under a single common programming model; the existing controls are provided by the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) from Eclipse. Standard Widget Graphics facilitates the building of advanced, animated, rich-client applications, targeting business graphics, where the user interface/interaction experience can be highly visual, dynamic, and intuitive.

Since the introduction of windowing UI platforms, their programming for graphics for use in applications has remained fairly primitive and largely unchanged. The goal of the SWG is to simplify the task of including business graphics in rich-client applications by providing integrated high-level graphics support in a unified common programming model with the current UI controls (buttons, listboxes, labels, etc.), thus facilitating the creation of rich applications with graphical output such as dashboard-type programs. The goal, in a nutshell, is graphics made simple.

The overall target is not only to facilitate the programming and use of graphics but also to enrich the platform capabilities and provide advanced animation and dynamic update mechanisms for the UI, thereby potentially making the end user's experience more productive and enhancing the understanding of the application's output through rich, compelling, interactive visuals.

This technology runs on Windows®, Linux®, and Nokia.

How does it work?

Standard Widget Graphics for Eclipse provides new graphic widgets (controls) and an animation framework as new functionality within the Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) that builds upon the existing SWT programming model and allows current SWT developer skills to be made use of. Graphics become much easier to program: Rather than having to deal with graphics in the traditional way, via a canvas with pens, brushes, etc., which ends up being fairly complicated, the developer now can simply add graphic objects (widgets), such as ellipses, polygons, etc. Using these new graphic objects, the SWT/platform now manages the drawing, hit detection, etc., just as is done with the existing UI controls such as button and label, greatly alleviating the work of the developer. In addition, new animation objects provide advanced interactive and dynamic behaviors for both the new graphic controls and the existing controls, making programming even easier.

Jeff Boston and Steve Wood work at the IBM T. J. Watson Research center in New York, N.Y. They work in the area of composite media, graphics, and rich-client technologies. They are also part of the team that created the IBM Toolkit for MPEG-4.