What GUI library(ies) did you use? Just Swing? Java-FX as well?
I'm curious about this - I've developed the macOS part of a desktop app, where the Windows part used WPF, and we shared C# code (.net core, so it would run in both platforms).
The advantages were that each app looked 'native' to its OS. But in my opinion, the disadvantages outweighed them: a) No linux support. b) Double the work on the UI parts.
The Java alternative would reverse this: no native-looking UI elements, but they would be done once and run everywhere, including Linux. Another alternative would be Electron, but I feel (though I'm not sure) Java would be more performant.
Can anyone chime in on this? I know there's no definitive winner on this space...
I've written almost no Java before this project, and I had never used JavaFX before. It took about 2 weeks to go from beginning to end on the project, which I was happy with.
In fact, I recently had to create a cross-platform desktop app, and I'm still not aware of a better option then the JVM. I would have preferred to write it in Scala, but opted for Java to make it easier for the rest of the team to maintain.
Java isn't an awesome language, but it's fine. There's a lot of awful legacy Java code out in the wild, and I wouldn't want to work on it. But Java as a language is boring, inoffensive, and it works. As a result, it's probably going to be around for a long time.