Are there any user interface prototyping tools for Eclipse?

Question

I am looking into designing new features for Eclipse-based programming tools, from the requirements/ideas perspective. To really do this quickly, I would like to sketch UI elements without having to code things -- my concern is with the concepts and ideas right now, not the possible later realization. Are there any such graphical sketching tools for Eclipse?

(on a side note, I should also note that I find Eclipse a better idea every day, in the way that you can combine partial systems from very many different sources into a single environment. It really is the future of IDEs, especially for embedded systems. It used to pretty horrible pre-Eclipse-3.0, but now it does seem to work)

Inexpugnable

Answer 1

WireframeSketcher is a tool that helps quickly create wireframes, mockups and prototypes for desktop, web and mobile applications. It comes both as a standalone version and as a plug-in for Eclipse IDEs. It has some distinctive features like storyboards, components, linking and vector PDF export. Among supported IDEs are are Aptana, Flash Builder, Zend Studio and Rational Application Developer.

_{(source: wireframesketcher.com)}

Tier

Answer 2

Incidentally, NetBeans is known for having a really good GUI editor (Matisse), but I realize that you weren't asking about NetBeans :)

Cicely

The problem I had with that thing is that the code is unmaintainable if you have people not usin Netbeans on your project. I don't know how well you can cope wit it if using Netbeans, but just having the code without a designer is a nightmare to work with. But I guess that Java's layout managers have been a really bad idea when it comes to visual design tools (from my experience so far at least). – Oread

Answer 3

I've tried the Visual Editor Project before, but in the past it crashed my instance of Eclipse, and I haven't visited it since.

Jigloo is a new one that I'd like to try out soon.

Cicely

Thanks, too bad that VEP seems to be an abandoned project that is not even on Europa yet. It sounded like what I needed. – Inexpugnable

there is a community based fork of this project now: sourceforge.net/projects/visualeditor – Perpendicular

Answer 4

This is really specific to Eclipse: it is the platform of choice for general IDEs today, and I am looking to sketch out extensions to it. The target programming language is more likely to be raw assembler and C than anything else -- OS, driver, system-level debug.

Inexpugnable