Graphical User Interface Programming Challenges Moving Beyond Java Swing and JavaFX

Oracle, the owner of Java, announced in 2018 that they would stop supporting their Swing and JavaFX technologies within the next decade. These technologies have fulfilled the graphical user interface (GUI) needs of CERN accelerator operation for over 2 decades, but their impending eradication has triggered an initiative to choose alternative technologies to develop future GUIs. Hundreds of existing applications will also need to be migrated or rewritten. The challenges to replace Java GUIs are numerous. The programmers will have to adapt and be retrained. The performance of the new GUI technologies will have to be at least as performant as the existing Java technologies. The programming environment, code versioning, dependency management and documentation will all need to be considered. This paper provides an overview of research comparing candidate GUI technologies and explains the selection of two main language families as possible replacements for Swing and JavaFX: Web applications (combining Java/JavaScript and web sockets) and Python PyQt (C++ based graphical library).