Remove duplicate jars
Simple MongoDB+Java example
Lightweight JSP development environments
jEdit with jGoodies
Jython is great
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Java enjoys something of a tarnished history, in some ways. Originally held up as the penultimate client-side technology--everybody remember when "Write Once, Run Anywhere" was the sole slogan for Java?--Java has since more or less abandoned its client-side roots in favor of its success on the server-side in J2EE. And yet, Sun just can’t quite give up on the idea of "Java everywhere": server-side, client-side, even PDA-side. They sink millions of dollars in time and salaries in perpetuating the Swing libraries from one JDK release to the next, all to be greeted with comments like, "Java Swing is not good for GUI development" or the more colloquial "Swing Sucks".
Ted’s arguments make lot of sense. I hope Sun sees it that way too. Marc Hedlund has another take on Swing.
I think ability to define GUIs in XML (or something as simple) that can generate lightweight UI’s for Swing, Web etc. might be of great use. Mozilla XUL might be good enough. PythonCard is certainly powerful enough for me!