I originally posted this at http://bdgregg.blogspot.com/2006/05/ged-gui-ed-ive-just-uploaded-ged-to.html.
I've just uploaded Ged to my Specials collection: it is a GUI front-end to the "ed" line editor, which I've developed for Java 1.5 using Swing. It enhances "ed" in several ways, such as providing optional themes, sound effects, and a stunning splash screen rendered in POV-ray.[1]
Ok, the real reason I'm coding in Java/Swing is to test drive the new Java 1.5 features and the Swing API. I've coded in Java before, however, the last few years I've been using mostly Shell, Perl, C and DTrace. There are some really great features in Java 1.5 to try out. I'm also planning on writing some more freeware GUI-based programs; such as performance monitoring tools (DTrace) and Games.
In the past I've coded in OSF/Motif, GTK 2.0, Java/AWT and now Java/Swing. It's hard to choose a single winner, they each have different pros and cons. However, I do like coding in both GTK and Swing.
For now, enjoy Ged. No, I didn't write "ed" itself in Java: it borrows /bin/ed. Of course, I could write "ed" entirely in Java, which would make Ged more portable, but there are higher things on my todo list!
[1] which was then mutilated by downsampling to "classic" 2-bit colour.