Genome browser built in java: Swing and awt or Swing and Processing?

Question

I'm writing a genome browser designed primarily to view the history of chromosomal rearrangements. Right now the project is a series of proof-of-concept demos written using Processing. At this point if I don't make any radical changes the final application will be a web applet with a gui built of swing components that open PApplets to actually show the rearrangements happening.

My question is: Should I give up on processing and switch over to pure Swing/AWT? This is my first big java project. I'm building in eclipse, but I can use netbeans as well. If I could embed PApplet objects inside a JFrame, for example, that would make my day.

Answer 1

Keep in mind that I know almost nothing about either Processing or your project, so I can only give you general advice.

The question that you should ask yourself before every major design change: what problem am I trying to solve by making this change? If the current architecture works, then you should keep it. If it's not working, then you should start by defining the specific things that are wrong with it (which I notice you didn't do).

Answer 2

processing.core.PApplet extends java.applet.Applet, so it should be possible to embed a PApplet in a java.awt.Frame, as discussed in the article Applet ⇒ application: Hybrid Switch Hitters. See also, Mixing heavy and light components.

Addendum: From the API, "Processing runs in a Frame and not a JFrame. However, there's nothing to prevent you from embedding a PApplet into a JFrame," except for the limitations mentioned above.