Gui development tools

im not exactly new to java, i have developed GUIs in the past . is there any good tools or software out there for rapid development of GUIs rather than writing code.
Sincerely dotsy

I think all gui creators suck.
You still have to go into "their" code and try and figure it out.
I have now created 3-4 very robust gui applications.
I now have my own frame work that I work around.
I can create complex guis within hours.
It's that MVC thingy that made my View or Gui classes very portable.
I think that is the best way, then you know your own code.
and you can use it over and over again with different apps.

Similar Messages

What was the first GUI development tool of Oracle?

Hi,
I am an Oracle Developer and currently developing my own Website dedicated to Oracle, especially on the development tools. In my website I have a page dedicated to the history and development of the Oracle Developer tools, from SQL*FORMS 1,2,3,4 etc. to the Current Developer. What I want to know are the release dates of the first Windows based development tools by Oracle. I know that Forms 4 was the first Windows based GUI development tool Oracle released ( I think it was called Oracle CDE). But I don't know when it was released. Was it in 1993 or 1994? If you can tell me which month it would be even better and more accurate. I got to know through the Internet that Developer/2000 Version 1 was released in March/1995. Is this true? Any information on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks & regards
LS

Hi,
the first version of CE was 7.1. Followed by 7.11 and 7.20. But you have to be carefull. There was a netweaver release 7.0 which already included parts of the components shipped with CE (e.g CAF and WebDynpro). But these are different releases, so it is not possible to do an easy upgrade from NW 7.0 to CE 7.1
Best regards,Stefan

Java GUI development tools .. JBuilder??

dear people..i need some help..
i am building a GUI, which has menu options. It allows users to design a GUI.. but i have to write code that wil add objects and shapes to the GUI, when the user selects an option from the GUI menu.
however.. i have heard JBuilder or similar tools.. can automatically add my code when the user selects an option from the menu.. is this correct.. ??
If so,, what other tools can also do this..?? that can be freely downloaded??
does anyone know of any??
thank you in advance...

Forte for Java the ultimate choice !! And its fully developed using Java !
http://wwws.sun.com/software/Developer-products/

Free Download JFrameBuilder 2.1.5 - Visual Java GUI Development Tool.

JFrameBuilder is a really easy-to-use visual Java GUI designer. Create GUI applications using a drag-and-drop interface without spending a lot of time writing code.
Quick and Easy-to-use
Download it now!
http://www.mars3000.com/index.html

Do you like it?

J2SDK 1.4.1 Install on Win2K does not install Development Tools

I've tried installing, re-installing, removing and installing the JDK 1.4.1 and it WILL NOT install the GUI development tools. Any hints or clues as to how to fix this?

JDK1.4.1 does not include runide.exe. This executable file is from the Netbeans for Windows installation. As a teacher of Java at a university (part-time), I strongly recommend that you learn the fundamentals of Java before learning to use an IDE such as Netbens.
JDK1.4.1 does not install GUI development tools ? no it will not install an IDE, but it will install everything you need to create a graphical interface.
Please don't be sucked into ignoring the fact that learning Java with an IDE is only "bad" according to opinion. I can assure you that in my experience, it is becoming more and more factual.
Also, don't believe that you have enough experience with Java to begin using an IDE. You previous statements suggest that you have a lot more learning to do. No attempts to attack ability, just trying to help.
At the end of the day, it's up to you. I strongly recommend to start up your command shell and a decent text editor and start playing with swing.
Good luck !
Tony Morris
Software Engineer, IBM
Gold Coast, Australia

GUI development direction

I am trying to get a feel for where Sun is heading with GUI development tools. The visu tool (XDesigner) included with Forte C++ installs with "support" for integrating a numer of widget sets into the base program. However, I have never been able to create a fully functional widget set-specific version of the visu tool with the supplied integration files. The CDE widgets can be integrated somewhat successfully, but other user_widgets directories like that for Motif 2.0 are missing files, and it's clear that these were never tested before pressing the CDs. Without these additional widgets (combo boxes, tabbed panes,...), it's not possible to create a reasonably modern GUI. These problems are not addressed with each new release or update, which indicates that it must not be a priority for Sun or other developers. I've asked about this on various tech support calls to Sun, but no one had information. Does anyone have any clues to Sun's direction regarding modern GUI development with C++?

Motif 2.x development is not supported in Forte Developer 6U2 and previous versions.
It will be supported in Forte Developer 7 though.
You can try out the FD7EA2 package with your code for now, but FD7EA2 does not honor the "visu" name and "VISUROOT" environment variable. You will have to change "visu" to "xdesigner" in any existing makefiles and "VISUROOT" to "XDROOT". Other than that it should be compatible.
FD7EA2 is available at http://wwws.sun.com/software/Developer-products/info/features/fd7ea2.html .
-Moazam

Tools for GUI development in Java

hi,
Can anybody tell me which r the tools available for GUI development using java?which could be the best

Take care not to produce much source code! Use a suitable framework rather than a tool and save maintainability. E.g. http://www.must.de/cameleon.html

DocFlex/Javadoc 1.5.6, a multi-format doclet development tool and more

DocFlex/Javadoc is both a multi-format Javadoc Doclet and a rapid doclet development tool, which allows easy creation of professional quality Java API documentation generated by Javadoc in various output formats.
More in this article:
Key Features
Availability
This Version
What is DocFlex?
Main Concepts
Other Applications
Links
KEY FEATURES
Template-driven doclet architecture
- Actual doclets are created in the form of special templates interpreted by the DocFlex Doclet, which is the template interpreter / output generator wrapped in the form of a Javadoc Doclet.
- The high quality graphic Template Designer allows you to visually design most of things, whose development was possible so far only by direct Java coding.
- The templates are designed independently on a particular output format. All formatting is specified in some universal way using properties of template components. During the generation, it is rendered with the suitable features available in the selected output format.
- The elaborated support of template parameters (including multivalued list parameters). The parameters are defined and accessed within templates to adjust dynamic properties of template components. Most of options previously used to control an ordinary doclet now simply become template parameters!
- The possibility to call templates from one another. This feature (along with the template parameters) makes possible re-using the same templates for different tasks as well as organizing template libraries.
Data processing
- The entire Doclet API is represented in the form of a virtual XML document (called Doclet DSM), on which the designing and processing of all templates is based.
- Sophisticated capabilities for data querying and sorting based on an extension of XPath.
- Full support of new Java 5.0 language features: Generic Types, Enums, Annotations.
- Simultaneous support of Java 1.4 and Java 5.
Creating hyperlinks
- Generation of an extensive network of hyperlinks interconnecting the whole documentation.
- The hyperlinks can be generated in all output formats that support them (this currently includes HTML and RTF).
- The universal way of defining documentation cross-links based on the link/target keys specified in templates.
- In RTF, the cross-links can be generated in the form of page number references, which effectively makes them usable even in the printed documentation.
- In HTML, the possibility of loading several frame windows from a single hyperlink at once.
Universal support of various formatting techniques
- text formatting: fonts, colors, borders
- paragraph formatting: margins, pagination control, borders, colors
- border formatting: styles (solid, double, dashed, dotted), thickness, colors
- tables: arbitrary cell layouts, borders, nested tables
- lists: bulleted, numbered, delimited
- document fields (RTF): page number, number of pages, TOC, etc.
- page formatting: size, orientation, margins, headers/footers
- formatting styles
- rendering of embedded HTML, which means interpreting in non-HTML output formats (such as RTF) the HTML tags embedded in text data (e.g. documentation comments). Almost all HTML tags practically usable in doc-comments are supported.
Inserting images
- statically specified in templates
- dynamically, obtained by <img> tags found in Java comments
- supported image formats: GIF, PNG, JPG, WMF, EMF, BMP
Output formats
- HTML (both framed multi-file and single-file output)
- RTF (version 1.6 - supported since Word 2000).
- TXT (plain text), which may be particularly useful for various utilizations of the Java code information provided by the Doclet API generate XML files by it, or SQL files to import into a database).
Standard Template Set
- The ready-to-use Standard Template Set included in all editions of DocFlex/Javadoc allows you to immediately generate:
(*) The framed HTML Java API documentation similar to that generated by the standard Javadoc.
(*) The same documentation packed in a single HTML file.
(*) The unmatched quality RTF JavaDoc.
- Special features supported by standard templates:
(*) Excluding classes/methods/fields by custom tags and annotations.
(*) Selective omitting of package qualifiers.
(*) Selective documenting of custom tags (similar to -tag option of Standard Doclet).
- By modifying the standard templates, you can quickly customize the generated documentation according to your needs.
Doclet GUI
- Besides command line options, DocFlex Doclet supports an alternative user-friendly way to control the template-based doclets interactively -- the high quality Doclet GUI.
- The Doclet GUI starts with the Generator Dialog, where you can specify all general settings (such as the main template, the output format and the output directory), start the generation, track its progress and stop at any moment you need.
- The grid-tree-based Parameter Inspector invoked from the Generator Dialog for a selected template allows you to view the descriptions of all template parameters controlling the doclet and set their values according to the parameter data types.
- The generator options specific for the selected output format can be set in the corresponding Format Option Inspector (also invoked from the Generator Dialog).
- Once the generation is finished (or cancelled), you can start it again with different settings or a new main template without restarting the whole Javadoc.
Integrations
- With any system that runs Javadoc (in particular, see below)
- Apache Ant
- Apache Maven 2
- Eclipse
For lots more information, see DocFlex/Javadoc homepage: [http://www.filigris.com/products/docflex_javadoc/]
AVAILABILITY
DocFlex/Javadoc comes in two editions:
(1) The full edition called "DocFlex/Javadoc" as it is. This is commercial software, which includes all the implemented functionality.
(2) The reduced freeware edition called "DocFlex/Doclet". It includes only the output generator and can be used as an interpretor of any custom templates. It also includes the standard template set, which allows you to instantly use it as an HTML doclet (similar to the standard one, however with some special features) plus an excellent quality RTF doclet.
Both editions are available for downloads on the page: [http://www.filigris.com/downloads/]
THIS VERSION
New features:
- The template interpretor works 15-20% faster
- Improvement of RTF output
- Multi-valued (list) template parameters
- Custom elements
- Standard Templates: Selective documenting of custom tags (similar to -tag option of standard doclet)
For more details, see product Readme | Change Log on the downloads page: [http://www.filigris.com/downloads/]
WHAT IS DOCFLEX?
DocFlex is an innovative technology for development of high quality template-driven documentation/report generators by any kind of data obtained from various software applications via the Java APIs they provide.
MAIN CONCEPTS
The whole DocFlex technology is based on four generalizations:
(1) The mapping of an entire Java API onto a virtual XML-like representation made of some elements and attributes so as to process any such a representation in a universal way using techniques borrowed from the field of XML, like XPath (or more precisely, a conceptual analogue of XPath with some extensions not present in it).
(2) The abstract formatting concept based on four layouts (flow of text, flow of paragraphs or paragraph-like objects, tables and lists), which can be rendered in most modern document formats (e.g. HTML, RTF, XSL-FO etc.)
(3) The automatic generation of hyperlinks (or their page number reference equivalents) by matching the sets of keys produced from certain natural properties of the things (entities) being documented and hyper-linked.
(4) The representation of the object controlling structure of the output generator (made on the first three principles) in the form of a plain-text template with a possibility to create and edit such templates using a graphic Template Designer, which visualizes the controlling objects (now becoming template components) in a form resembling the output they will produce.
OTHER APPLICATIONS
In fact, DocFlex/Javadoc is not the only application of DocFlex technology. The following is a summary of other DocFlex software:
DocFlex/XML
The SDK and runtime environment for rapid development and execution of template-driven automatic documentation/report generators by any data obtained from XML files.
This is currently the most complex and advanced application of DocFlex technology. Actually, this tool can be considered a powerful alternative to XSLT. At least, it is definitely able to do what XSLT apparently not (for example, see XSDDoc below). We will publish a more detailed comparison DocFlex/XML versus XSLT with the next DocFlex/XML release, which is coming very soon.
DocFlex/XML home page: [http://www.filigris.com/products/docflex_xml/]
DocFlex/XML | XSDDoc
A template set for DocFlex/XML that implements a high quality W3C XML Schema documentation generator in HTML and RTF output formats.
For more details, please see: [http://www.filigris.com/products/docflex_xml/xsddoc/]
DocFlex/XML | WSDLDoc
A similar template set for DocFlex/XML that will implement a high-end WSDL documentation generator.
This product is not released yet.
DocFlex/Together
A template-driven documentation generator for [Borland Together|http://www.borland.com/us/products/together/] (which is a UML modeling tool).
This is the earliest application of DocFlex technology and probably the most beautiful one. It works only with Together Architect 1.x, which is now obsolete. Unfortunately, since Together 2005, Borland eliminated any open APIs (for unknown reasons). Because of this, further development of DocFlex/Together was impossible.
DocFlex/Together home page: [http://www.filigris.com/products/docflex_together/]
See also examples of the UML documentation generated with it: [http://www.filigris.com/products/docflex_together/examples/]
The future DocFlex/UML is going to generate something like this as well.
DocFlex/UML
A template-driven UML documentation generator based on [Eclipse EMF|http://www.eclipse.org/emf/]. This tool is in early development stage yet. In a sense, it will continue DocFlex/Together with the focus on integration with other UML tools that use Eclipse EMF.
LINKS
This original article can be found at:
[http://www.filigris.com/ann/docflex_javadoc_v1.5.6/]
DocFlex/Javadoc home page:
[http://www.filigris.com/products/docflex_javadoc/]
DocFlex/XML home page:
[http://www.filigris.com/products/docflex_xml/]
DocFlex/XML | XSDDoc, the XML schema documentation generator:
[http://www.filigris.com/products/docflex_xml/xsddoc/]
Free downloads:
[http://www.filigris.com/downloads/]

Now, DocFlex/Javadoc v1.4 has been released specifically dedicated to Linux (Mac OS X) support:
(*) Some early bugs have been fixed, which prevented it working properly under Linux.
(*) A special RTF option was introduced to generate OpenOffice.org friendly RTF (see below)
(*) Improved support for external document viewers.
(*) Now, DocFlex/Javadoc software includes the shell script files prepared to quickly install and launch it under Linux
New RTF option
A new RTF output option "Tune output for MS Word� has been introduced. This option, actually, allows switching off that very tuning (which until now was the default mode) to produce an RTF friendly to open with other non MS Word applications, e.g. OpenOffice.org Writer under Linux.
Read full announcement (and screenshot) by this link:
http://www.filigris.com/ann/docflex_javadoc_v1.4/
Regards,
Leonid Rudy
http://www.docflex.com

Good development tools???

I am looking for some good FREE development tools to run under Windows XP. Anyone got some suggestions???
Right now I am using Gvim, Sun JDK, JSwat.
I would like a better Visual Debugger.
I would really like to use an IDE that would allow me to launch Gvim for the file editor, or possible an IDE that has a vi editing mode.
Most importantly I am looking for a stand alone application that will display java API information.
Side note: Does anyone know how to make Gvim help (SHIFT+K) interface with the java API docs under windows???
Thanks,
Matt

Well, there are a few free IDE's. I don't know if you are familar with any like Forte, Netbeans, or JBuilder so I'll just give you some details.
Forte and Netbeans are basically the same. Netbeans is developed and destributed as freeware by a group of developers. Forte is Sun's version of Netbeans, which is basically a stable release of Netbeans with possibly some addons from Sun. I don't use either anymore, but from what I recall, they are essentially the same. You can grab Forte from Sun's web site. You can grab Netbeans for http://www.netbeans.org.
Now, my personal favorite, is Borland's JBuilder. It runs faster than Forte and Netbeans, especially on computers with low RAM (64 MB min). Borland offers a free personal version than can do all the basics. It has a nice drag and drop GUI builder. I find it the easiest to use as well. It also has a built in debugger and Insite. You can grab JBuilder from Borland at http://www.borland.com.

Installing development tools

I went through the process of installing the development tools package from the Install CD last night, but don't really see anything different in my programs list. Should something extra have been installed there, or did this just install the gcc, gdb stuff at the OS level and no real GUI applications get installed?
Anyone recommend any good books on learning to develop software for the Mac?
Thanks,
glenn

The developer tools are installed in the /Developer folder. To learn about Mac programming, go to the Software Development 101 forum.

NetBeans or Eclipse: Which is better for GUI development ?

I am relatively new with JAVA, came from embedded software domain mostly in C.
My interest is to learn and develop the GUI applications using Swing.
I am currently in a process of evaluating the IDEs, Eclipse and NetBeans on Linux desktop environment (SuSE 10.3).
My primary findings found that, NetBeans is better equipped with GUI development while Eclipse needs to have a plugin installed.
For GUI development, I found that few of my fellow Java developer friends have mixed feelings about these two wonderful IDEs, in summary here are the comments:
1) Developing GUI is better without any assistance from built in designers of IDEs (e.g. NetBeans or Visual Swing of Eclipse). Because, they put extra 'garbage" codes which are very much IDE specific.
2) GUI development in NetBeans is faster and more productive than Eclipse
3) Visual Swing for Eclipse is not a matured product and it is far inferior than NetBeans' capabaility
Now I ask a question, what is the best practice to adopt for starting the GUI development ? NetBeans or Eclispse or IDE-less development ?
Thanks.

atomodachi wrote:
Now I ask a question, what is the best practice to adopt for starting the GUI development ?
NetBeansThis is my preference for IDE's. Please note that as I stated that is my preference. There isn't any best, some are clearly better than others for one reason or another, but once again, that boils down to personal preference.
EclispseNot my preference.
IDE-less development ?IMO: that is just silly. Unless you just enjoy tons of typing; why would you ever embark on doing something without a tool to speed up the process. Now that is not to say that in using your IDE you should start out by just dragging and dropping up a storm and merrily running down the road in ignorance until you hit a rough spot and have things dramatically pointed out that you've really not a clue about what is happening. Use the IDE, but learn how to do the manual processes along with it. That means that sometimes you'll not drag and drop to build your GUI, you'll actually code the entire thing. And you really should learn to do things command-line like compile. Do yourself a really big favor too, learn the debugger. The integrated debuggers is, perhaps, one of the best inventions in productivity tools that has as of yet been invented for developers.
In any case, have fun... choose what you like, it really does come down to personal preference. I've worked in several shops over the years and most have come to the conclusion that if you can get the work done, and have projects that others can use, then to each their own preferences. The discussion rages on for and against each of the systems that you have mention--each have valid arguments--it boils down to what do you want and like.

Permissions for Developer Tools

I installed the Developer Tools on three Macs I bought for my students to try. The setup is with three basic accounts: Admin; Graham (Standard account for my use); and Student. The latter is a Managed account.
I have found in the Managed account that trying to open any of the applications in the Developer package brings up a "insufficient privileges" warning. I am reluctant to give the students increased access privileges (and Admin is certainly out) as they are (of course) inquisitive and will push things if they can. It is possible for me to use the programs in my Standard account.
I had a look at the Finder permissions for a few of the files but even when I undid the padlock, I was unable (in Admin) to change the Student account to anything that would allow use.
Is there a way to allow access to these utilities by changing permissions, or am I going to have to change that account to a Standard one, with possible risk?

"I had a look at the Finder permissions for a few of the files but even when I undid the padlock, I was unable (in Admin) to change the Student account to anything that would allow use."
How much time did you waste doing this? I say wasted because "permissions" have nothing to do with why the "managed" user can't use those applications in this situation - that dialogue is an example of a poor choice of words by the GUI designers, right up there with calling "login items" "Startup items" prior to "Tiger" (not to be confused with "StartupItems"), referring to a file owned by a uid that doesn't have a corresponding local user as being owned by "(unknown)" (not to be confused with the user "unknown" uid=99), and don't get me started about "Name", "realname", "Short Name", "name"...
Rant aside, "Michael Conniff" is correct - applications may be approved for use by a "managed" user by selecting them in the "Accounts" pref pane. The selected apps are recorded in 'mcx_settings' in "NetInfo", and represented only by eg. their 'CFBundleIdentifier', or else a string derived from their "creator code". The programme's "path" is not important.
It seems that only items in "/Applications" or "/Applications/Utilities" are presented in the "checkable" list in the "Accounts" pref pane, so the "Developer" apps can be made to appear there if their enclosing folder is temporarily to "/Applications" (they can be moved back after the apps are selected because the "path" is unimportant). Neither an "alias" nor a "symbolic link" to the developer apps folder seems to work. However, an alias to an app itself will appear in the list, so an alternative would be to place a folder full of aliases in the "/Applications" folder. A folder full of aliases can be prepared by searching in "/Developer" for items whose "Kind" is "Application", selecting "All" in the search results list, and dragging the items to a folder while holding down the "command" (⌘) and "option" (⌥) keys.

Introducing JavaStates - a new API for state based GUI development in Swing

JavaStates partially implements the semantics of D Harel' statecharts.
It is currently hosted as source forge project:
[https://sourceforge.net/projects/javastates/]
, and has been used for several years for teaching Java Swing and the specification of man machine interfaces at ESIL
[http://www.esil.univmed.fr]
[http://laurent.henocque.com]
The project provides several demos, including a full fledged swing text editor, and is stable.
Details can be found here too:
[http://javastates.posterous.com/]
I'd be very happy to interact with both experts and users.
I claim that Javastates tremendously improve the quality and speed of GUI development.
Do you agree?
Edited by: lhenocque on Mar 4, 2010 4:18 AM

Thanks for the good practise hint, and many more thanks for your interest.
I haven't tried anything but don't you get an explosion of states?
explosion of states is controlled by concurrent regions. Two states in two concurrent regions can be active at the same time.
There can be no 'explosion' anyway since the states are programmer declared. The list is finite, and under control.
For example the program I'm working on has a table and actions are enabled based on:
-no selection/single selection/multi selection
-top/bottom row selected (move up/down action)
-user read/write permission
-properties of the object of the selected row
The situation you describe is handled by (at least) four concurrent regions.
The typical error is usually forgetting a particular one which result in action being enabled/disabled when the shouldn't. Currently solving that by having a callback method which enables all the action correctly and gets called whenever there is a selection/security/etc update.
Javastates cares for both setting the properties of the states (including the callbacks to fire) and for the cleanup. Using this allows for defect free interfaces in the sense that nothing can be left over.
Using Javastates helps you to separate your logic in the same way as object programming with virtual functions does. You should end up replacing a code with many if/thens by separate listeners, dynamically set by callbacks.
Also fluent interface method chaining is nice until it becomes a flood in my opinion - similar to how GroupLayout is better handled by Matisse GUI builder than by hand, JavaStates might benefit more from a graphical tool.
You are right. Both apis exist. The fluent api is provided for simplicity, since it prevents from declaring useless local variables.
Also for a GUI builder. I created the foundation of Javastates for an interpreted language called WIZ in the IDE Openside around 1990 (that was in C).
Then later I implemented a subset of the current Java features in C++, that were interfaced in the GUI Builder called ILOG Views.
So yes I agree a GUI can help, but anyway the Java code resulting from using states is mare more concise and structured than it would otherwise.

Where can I download complete Xcode Developer Tools for OS-X 10.6?

I have OS-X version 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard, I think). I do not have Xcode installed. I do not have the original MAC DVD.
I figured out I needed Xcode 3.2. When I download "Xcode 3.2" it from Apple, during install it says it failed "to locate package at ~/Packages/DeveloperTools.pkg".
Downloading "Xcode 3.2.1 Developer Tools" (there is no "Xcode 3.2 Developer Tools"), installing it results in the same error message. (The contents of this DMG is "XcodeTools.mpkg".)
Maybe I should download "Xcode 3.2.6 and iOS SDK 4.3 for Snow Leopard"? (But that is 4.14GB and I can't download that right now.)
Or am I stuck because I do not have the original DVD which I may need to get "DeveloperTools.pkg"?
(Also, why do you think the DMG binaries are so huge? The "Xcode 3.2" DMG for example, is 1GB, but the inside "Xcode.mpkg" is only 541KB!)

Any of the Xcode 3.2.x download packages will work with Snow Leopard. You don't need the Snow Leopard DVD to install Xcode, but if you had the DVD things would be easier for you because you could install Xcode from the DVD and not have to download it. If you don't need to develop for iOS, Xcode 3.2.2 is 744.71 MB, which is a much smaller download than Xcode 3.2.6.
The Xcode binaries are huge because you're downloading and installing more than just Xcode. There are other GUI apps, such as Interface Builder, Instruments, Dashcode, and Quartz Composer. There are also command-line tools. And there may also be developer documentation included with the Xcode binaries. All that adds up.

Development tool for long term

Just wondering which of the three tools:
1. adobe air
2. webworks
3. upcoming native sdk
would be a good bet to be the primary tool used over the next few years?
Just didn't want to have to re-develop apps in case we made the wrong decision today. Is there a general consensus which one might dominate the developer community? Or has anyone tried the beta for the native sdk that could give their opinoin?
thanks.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

That all depends on your current skills and the type of app you are trying to develop.
Adobe AIR: Uses ActionScript and is a higher level object-orient language. There are tons of sites and sample code available on the net and AS3 has been around at least 7 years so it is fairly mature. AIR applications can be ported to other platforms including iOS and Android. AIR also allows you to create desktop applications and the sibling version (Flex) allows you to build browser applications. Adobe AIR allows to create a wide variety of application types (basic games, business, etc.). Most people with OO background can pick it up pretty quickly and is "similar" to Java. The development tools are mature (Eclipse) including debuggers, profilters, remote debugging, etc. Very consistent user interface across all platforms.
WebWorks: If you are good with JavaScript and HTML, then this would be a good tool. WebWorks is bewer than AS3, but lots of resources to get to know JavaScript. Probably a little faster to build basic applications than AS3. It has the same drawbacks of developing web-based applications because of JS, but if that is what you know than it is a very good choice. Many other mobile platforms are adopting WebWorks too. Some WebWorks GUI elements look kind of strange.
Native SDK: Is a C++ SDK, so if you have years of C++ knowledge and need to have higher performance application for things like games (because it allows for multi-threading and OGL), then this is a very good choice. Not for the timid in dealing with C++, but you be closer to the OS level and will gain greater performance. If you dont currently know C++, I suggest to start with AS3. Other than games and some high performance business apps, you would have to create a strong case to use NDK over AIR or WebWorks. NDK will be wholy QNX and BBTOS API extensions. Not portable outside the BB/RIM for the most part. Lots of C/C++ libraries will likely port over easily. Unknown IDE at this point, but hopefully it is Eclipse as well.
Hope that helps.
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Gui development tools

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