if you look at XCode or VisualStudio, you'll see that the UI design is blended into the development process through drag and drop and properties panels that let you jump back-and-forth between an item on a window and the relevant class files

TornadoFX is all code and isn't fragmented in this way

also navigation, click a button -> go to code, click a class field -> go to UI

@carlw I like the TornadoFX way personally. Though I do wish the structure of the scene builder dsl was exposed in the "structure" view of IntelliJ

@amanda.hinchman-dominguez are you talking about Scenic View or Scene Builder?

... and the cmd-F12 doohickie

@carlw whoops, Scenic view, i misread! But now that we're talking about Scene Builder - I think it's kind of neat for the idea of drag-and-drop to generate code quickly. It can prevent basic mistakes from being made, and I suppose it would create a general idea of how projects should be structured, but what weirds me out is that drag-and-drop should generally be intended for people that aren't used to coding (and, I like full control of what I do)

@kastork that would be a nice panel...a short treeview that consolidates the setOnActions, etc

@amanda.hinchman-dominguez It's a productivity boost. For example dragging a bunch of components from the canvas onto a .java file and creating the fields based on the appropriate type: TextField, DateField, TableView, custom component, etc. Click on the button, zoom to a handler. That kind of stuff

i'm thinking specifically of a project with 7 FX developers (5 w varying experience, two novices with a graphic design background). it was tough to enforce consistency

Because of the way that the Kotlin compiler and IDEA itself is handling source code, we can actually programmatically change Kotlin code just as well as FXML. @nimakro started the initiative to create a Scene Builder like View editor for our TornadoFX IDEA Plugin, but these things are not easy to make. It would be a killer feature though, removing any need for a separate file to describe the UI and give the best of both worlds. Maybe one day 🙂

Hey @edvin @carlw yes I started to play with the ViewBuilder for the IDEA plugin ... I am currently in the last phase of writing my master thesis and will not have time to work on the plugin till the end of march.. but after that I will be back on track...I plan to have a first working version of the ViewBuilder up and running for kotlin conf this year 😉

Great @nimakro! You're able to attend?

@carlw Yes I am planning to go since Amsterdam isn't that fare from Germany, and with showing of I ment @edvin will show case it during his talk 😜

Great! I'm planning on going myself. @thomasnield are you planning on going to KotlinConf this year?

@edvin Did you plan on submitting a talk or @thomasnield or maybe @carlw;-) ?

@carlw Wow, are you coming to Amsterdam?! Fantastic! Will be super nice to meet you as well @nimakro 🙂 What about you @thomasnield?

I haven't thought about it yet, I'm just so busy with everything, but it's still far off, I should be able to do a talk I guess.

At this rate, I might be able to do a talk on CNC machining instead 🙂 hehe

@edvin Even if you don't put a talk together, you should still go until we can put a TornadoFXConf together 🙀

@carlw Yeah, absolutely - I'll go no matter what. It takes about the same time for me to take bus to Oslo as it does to go to Amsterdam 😎

Cool. I know @ron is in too

Nice we need to print some t-shirts 😉

@thomasnield Fantastic news! We need to get the lay of the land when it comes to coffee in Amsterdam.

Ron as well.. Cool :))

I think @edvin has some shirts. If not, he can mold some new ones.

Maisen is coming as well!

Yeah, ABS plastic shirts for everyone!

i'm thinking small plastic rings like chain mail

I think @edvin should have a booth there with keyboards 😜