Will Netbeans 7.0 be based on JFace / SWT, because of beta field test and Netcat feedback?

I was just curious and browsed yesterday night  the "7.0" branch in the mercurial repository. What I found was quite interesting - a considerable amount of …SWT/JFace code.

It seems like major portion of the workbench code was migrated  to  this proprietary "Eclipse UI technology". Digging deeper into the module subsystem I found some OSGI manifests and .ini-files as well.

I asked Sun directly about this unexpected direction and got some strange answers. It seems like Swing poor responsiveness and performance, as well as lack of portability forced the team to experiment with SWT / JFace.  Users / developers complained about the current native look and feel support…  Portions of the Matisse UI-builder were  already ported to support SWT/JFace - the JSF visual designer should be available as an Eclipse feature.

Several hours later the whole branch simply disappeared - which makes it even more interesting.

I'm already looking forward to the JavaONE conference - propably it will be one of the "hot news" like introducing "NetClipse" :-).

However I will miss the Netbeans 6.1 l&f - I actually really liked - it was fresh and different.  I'm only curious what happens to Java FX….

THIS ENTRY WAS POSTED AT 01.04. The only thing what is true, is my excitement about going to JavaONE :-).