Need to build stand-alone Java applications? The Definitive Guide to SWT and JFace will help you build them from the ground up. The book first runs down the Java GUI toolkit history. Then the book explains why SWT is superior and provides extensive examples of building applications with SWT.

You'll come to understand the entire class hierarchy of SWT, and you'll learn to use all components in the toolkit with Java code. Furthermore, the book describes JFace, an additional abstraction layer built on SWT. Demonstrations of building JFace applications are also included and reinforced with thorough explanations and example code. These applications can be used as GUI plug-ins for Eclipse, and they're compatible with the new Eclipse 3.0 application development framework.