Learning Skills Improvement Service Essay Example for Free

Learning Skills Improvement Service Essay In my position as a workshop trainer at Deerbolt young offenders’ institute, the education I deliver for The Manchester College as part of their Offender Learning is supported, monitored and shaped by various professional bodies. The purpose of these bodies or sector skills councils vary however they all have a common goal in ensuring and enriching the quality of education being delivered. LSIS or the learning and skills improvement service are such a body who umbrella over every organisation that delivers qualifications throughout the country, and they do exactly what they say on the tin. LSIS improve quality, participation and increase standards in education and training. A lot of their work involves developing resources, implementing schemes, sharing delivery aids that improve quality and achievement and tailoring support to learners needs. â€Å"Colleges and providers helped by LSIS improved by one inspection grade at their next inspection.† (LSIS [ND] [online]) LSIS don’t just support the educational improvements though; in 2010 they recognised The Manchester College as a Healthy FE college, healthy initiatives offered throughout the college like loyalty cards, gym memberships and better eating schemes aimed to improve the health of students and staff. Another group that oversee our work as teachers is the professional body the IFL or the Institute for Learning. Their role is to register everyone practicing as a teacher or trainer in FE on to their database. They promote themselves as supporting professional excellence; they aim to increase the status of teachers as professionals, requiring a membership fee and proof of qualifications which is supported by the employer. They also champion the importance of CPD and require members to provide evidence of this and their teaching hours each year. This is seen to keep standards of teaching high, and promote quality and teaching as a profession. Until very recently this is how the IFL worked but due to the loss in government funding and teachers reluctantly to pay their own subscription the number of people renewing their subscription to the IFL fell by over half to just 85,000 signalling a loss of confidence in the body and an end to its presences. For many teachers and trainers in FE it was seen as a welcomed downfall as many believed the IFL did nothing for them, however now this professional body has collapsed there is no one regulating the qualifications or standard required to teach in FE which may lead to competiveness for jobs and or poor standards of teaching and training. These developments seemingly leave only Ofsted in place to assess the quality and standards of colleges and the individual teachers. â€Å"Ofsted would be made responsible for ensuring that FE teachers were appropriately qualified through inspections† (TES [30/03/2012] [Online]) However I see a huge flaw in this method of assessing quality and knowledge, not every Ofsted inspector can have the depth in knowledge of every subject of every teacher he or she is going to observe. For example if I am teaching bricklaying and I’m teaching unacceptable practices how is that inspector meant to know I am teaching the wrong methods? Surely the only way to overcome this problem is to have employed properly qualified teachers and trainers and not just people with some subject knowledge. Now that the IFL is a voluntary body the employers themselves have discretion over this matter. Construction Skills is another organisation that oversee and support the vocational training we deliver in offender learning. They are a massive organisation and have a lot of different strands from providing qualifications, courses and assessment and training support through CSkills as an awarding organisation. They also developing courses and provide support and training to local businesses through being an industry training board. In 2003 Construction Skills were awarded Sector Skills Council status, this allowed them to deliver valued support across the industry. Their main aims are to help reduce a shortage in specialise skills and help to bring a diverse workforce into the industry. They are also involved in improving business performance and developing professional standards for construction occupations both trade and professional. The other area that they cover is probably most relevant to my work as a vocational trainer; they have a large input on the improvement of education for apprenticeships and higher and further education. They achieve this by awarding grants for training, providing businesses with advice on getting the best from their work force offering card schemes, recognised qualifications and helping to link college learning with on the job experience. Professionalism As teachers, trainers, tutors or whatever you what to call us in FE we all have more than one hat we wear that makes us a professional. The IFL although seemingly no more used to keep everybody who worked as a ‘teacher’ under the status of a professional. They did this by having in place the requirement to achieve QTLS or ATLS within five years of working within the education sector. QTLS stand for qualified teacher learning and skills and ATLS associate teacher learning and skills. Everybody working as a teacher was required to register as one or the other of these statuses depending on your level of teaching qualification, the full Cert Ed being a level 5, I myself would have had to apply for QTLS status. However the following quote suggests that very little teachers working in the sector today have taken out the required status of QTLS/ATLS. â€Å"Only a small number of lecturers have become ‘fully qualified’ under the current arrangements: between 2,900 (GHK, August 2011) and some 6,000 (IfL submission, 2012). Whilst this number may rise as the five-year watershed approaches, some 85 per cent of FE lecturers have not embarked on the final supervised practice phase, following the diploma. We do not believe that so slight a result after such a long delay makes this qualification credible as a licence to practise which, properly speaking, should be earned before starting work, as it would be in other professions.† (Bis [03/2012] [Online]) By making this a requirement the IFL aimed at ensuring each individual teacher had the ability to work at the standards expected of a licenced practitioner. To meet this requirement you were expected to submit evidence of your teaching practice, subject and background knowledge, your continued professional development and your own reflective practice. I feel this was affair approach to the matter They may say the â€Å"licence to practice should be earned before starting work† but the profession of teaching is like no other. Its not really something you can learn out of a book you have to get out there and do it then reflect on it, prepare and do it again. My personal two hats consist of my subject specialism, Carpentry and Joinery level 3 qualification, and hopefully in a couple of months my Cert Ed teaching qualification. Other training and development also comes into it, like holding a CSCS card, which is the Construction Skills Certificate Scheme. Another initiative that Construction Skills mentioned earlier are responsible for putting in place. It means you must hold a valid card to work on any building site in the country. To get a card you must pass a construction health and safety test, the cards also state on the back your profession and level of qualification. This is another method of keeping this industry safe, to required standards and professional. â€Å"Professional formation allows teachers to describe how these standards are evidenced in their teaching practice, along with aspects of subject currency, teaching and learning, reflective practice and planning for continuing professional development.† (IFL [11/2008] [Online]) Professional formation isn’t just about your status or qualifications though. It’s a lot about your actions too. As professionals we are expected to present, conduct and discipline ourselves in a particular manor. However with this status we also have the benefits of being rewarded recognition for our work, enhancing collaborations, sharing good practices and having support and respect from our colleagues, colleges and partnering bodies. The importance of engaging in CPPD CPPD or Continuing Personal and Professional Development is something as professionals we should all be doing on a regular basis. It was a requirement of the IFL to record our CPPD hours each year and although a lot of teachers possibly never took this serious it is a good method of keeping in touch with current affairs and adapting to changing trends. The key thing to remember is that this is not just about completing a list of activities undertaken during the year that add up to 6 or 12 or 30 hours. The time spent can be meaningless unless it makes a difference. (IFL [08/2009] [online]) Education is one such sector that never stands still, the requirement to change and reform is evident and we do this to keep things interesting, relevant and to continually push up standards. From a personal point of view, if I’m teaching my subject specialism I want to be a fountain of knowledge in it, I think it’s important to have good subject knowledge and as I have been out of the trade a couple of years now this is something I aim the address on completion of the Cert Ed. I will look at gaining further qualifications in my subject, or maybe completing an assessor’s award. I have even considered going back to construction site work to gain further experience and update my knowledge. Ideally being out in the field working on actual jobs with students would be the perfect scenario for continually developing myself and I feel this would also benefit the learners immensely. As for CPPD in my teaching, I aim to complete all training events offered, for example we had smart board training at work the other day. I also aim to relish being thrown in at the deep end which regularly happens as a cover tutor. I’m lucky in the way my support role at the prison lets me observe a lot of different teachers each week and taking on their good practices and addressing learners needs is excellent CPPD for me. The importance of reflective practice Reflecting on our work as teachers is the best way to develop, its important to have regular teaching practice. We learn valuable things when were in lessons, under pressure and on the spot, however the real learning comes afterwards when we reflect and analyse the session. This is our time to put things right in our heads and prepare ourselves for the same scenarios the next time. It would be extremely difficult to pre-empt every situation that could occur and almost impossible to prepare for each. â€Å"teachers who explore their own teaching through critical reflection develop changes in attitudes and awareness which they believe can benefit their professional growth as teachers, as well as improve the kind of support they provide their students.† (tttjournal [ND] [Online]) Not only should we be reflecting from our own experiences but it’s also extremely valuable to reflect on observations, hearing opinions from another person’s point of view can really pin point things that may have been frustrating us for weeks. Critical reflective practice is more complex than just reflecting. It’s about planning how you will evaluate a lesson or even a CPPD event; it is good practice to critically review these situations through different people’s points of view. Your colleagues, students, boss, or even a person in the field actually doing what you’re teaching or being taught. With this in mind reflection is one of our most important tools. Bibliography Bis [03/2012] Professionalism in further education [Online] http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/further-education-skills/docs/p/12-670-professionalism-in-further-education-interim [Accessed 27/05/2012] IFL [08/2009] Guidelines for your continuing professional development (CPD) [online] http://www.ifl.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/5501/J11734-IfL-CPD-Guidelines-08.09-web-v3.pdf [Accessed 12/06/2012] IFL [11/2008] Professional Formation [Online] http://www.itslifejimbutnotasweknowit.org.uk/files/IfL-professional-formation-overview.pdf [Accessed 12/06/2012] LSIS [ND] Our Impact in the Sector [Online] http://www.lsis.org.uk/AboutLSIS/LSIS-impact/Pages/default.aspx [Accessed 20/06/12] TES [30/03/2012] FE professionalism gets radical shake-up [Online] http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6202944 [Accessed 15/04/2012] Tttjournal [ND] Towards Reflective Teaching [Online] http://www.tttjournal.co.uk/uploads/file/back_articles/towards_reflective_teaching.pdf [Accessed 03/06/12]

Examples of Social Responsibility in Business

Examples of Social Responsibility in Business Ethical reasoning is a peoples thinking about right or wrong on human behavior or act. The author gave an example to understand human different approaches on situation under the concepts of duties, rights, and commitment. Morality is determined by the consequences of action. A consequences theory focusses on consequences of human action. Egoism cannot resolve conflicts of interest. The utilitarianism is the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number. The author gave an example of firm that produced pollution as byproduct to its manufacturing process with both side of argument with government against business people to understand concept of ethics has nothing to do with business, nor business with ethics. The author gave Kantian (a business person) view of breaking a contract is not a moral act. All stakeholders be treated as persons, with respect for their individual dignity. A trust is the correct starting point for the derivation of ethical behavior enables the construction of practical ethics in business and other contexts. The H.B.Fuller is a company that manufacture sniffing glue. In Honduras, the children drugging themselves by sniffing glue. It was easy to get glue through H.B.Fuller company. Honduras faced some economic problems in effort to industrialize. The company has some option to reduce this problem. One was add mustard oil into glue or close the product. The government of Honduras must concentrate on children education to overcome this issue. The H.B.Fuller company was very reputable company and now they have to rebuild their image, moral and philosophy of company. The Milton Friedman gave his view on social responsibility of business is to increase its profit. In a free-enterprise, private-property system, a corporate management is an employee of the owners of the business. He argue that, executive a different social responsibility, rather than serving as an agent of the stockholders or the customers or the employees, only if he spends the money in a different way than they would have spent it. He described political principle under two different mechanism, which are market and political. The Friedman said that executive is exercising a distinct social responsibility, rather than serving as an agent of the stockholders or the customers or the employees, only if he spends the money in a different way than they would have spent it. The Freeman described basic idea of stakeholder that business and executive who manage them, actually do and create value for customers, employees and financiers. The Freeman said about stake is an interest or a share in an undertaking and can be categorized as interest, right and ownership. There are two types of business stakeholders. Primary stakeholders and secondary stakeholders. Primary stakeholders are those that have a direct stake in the organization and its success. Secondary stakeholders re those that have a public or special interest stake in the organization. The Freeman explained responsibility of the executive in managing for stakeholders with a different example. He also described some argument to manage stakeholders. One of the strongest arguments for managing for stakeholders is that it asks executives and entrepreneurs to consider the question of what kind of company they want to create and build. Italian federal corporate tax system has a legal tax structure and tax rates as U.S. system does. The Italian tax authorities believe that no any firms submit tax return. All firms lies about their income and fraud to Italian tax authorities. The Italian corporation is represented by its commercialista, a function which exists in Italian society for the primary purpose of negotiating corporate (and individual) tax payments with the Italian tax authorities. The Italian service did lying and fraud. The negotiation of corporate tax by Italian tax authority managed with commercialista and bustarella, it is wrong action to earned money. The author Bowie described three formulation of fundamental of ethics. Act only on that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. The Bowie said that if everyone made lying promises, the consequences would be bad although they would. Rather, Kant is saying that the very concept of lying promises, when assumed as a principle by everyone, is confused. The Bowie gave two example to illustrate Kants view. If a maxim for an action when universalized is self-defeating, then the contemplated action is not ethical. That is Kants conceptual point.

The Internet real-name system

The Internet real-name system The Internet real-name system refers to a system that identifies Internet users by their real name and numbers of ID card. The Korean government announced the implement of real-name system in Korea from October, 2005. That means all the Internet users in Korea cannot put their statements on the forum only when their real name and ID cards are checked by the system. The real-name system extends itself into other countries, which immediately draws attentions from different aspects, as well as some controversy. Arguments and Discussion In recent years, the government and the general public exchange their ideas frequently through the Internet, which makes the net become an important channel for citizens to express their ideas and opinions. In the work report of Supreme Peoples Procuratorate of China, the net has become one of the new reporting channels. However, the main reason for this is the anonymity and amplification of the report from net, which can protect the informer and get quick response from the society (Nali, 2008).The citizens use the net to expose corruption and social problems. Meanwhile, they are committing themselves to the social civilization. The real-name system takes the effect of anonymous statement too easily, which affect the rights of freedom and supervision of the Internet users. This cannot meet the demand of the progress of our times. However, it should be noticed that with the development of the Internet, its cannot be avoided to find some rumors and language violence or other issues. This is also the main reason people would like to use the real-name system to protect the environment of Internet. But this is only the minority of the users. Most Internet users are law-abiding. It is overkill to shrinking spaces for Internet users only because the acts of minority. Form technical aspect, the application of real-name system is also superfluous. In fact, the statement in virtual network is not as irresponsible as most people imagine it. According to de IP address, any Internet users can be checked (Ping, 2005). When considered from the point of economy, the first element should be considered is the cost. With the implementation of real-name system, the registration could be the first problem. The users registration information must be compared with the information recorded in the civil registry office in order to confirm its authenticity. Even though it is technically feasible, the cost of the transformation would be huger than the cost producing from anonymity. Even putting aside the huge cost, the monitoring capability will also be very limited, because the information on the Internet is updating at an amazing speed. Combined with the truth that a lot of sites locate their servers outside the country in order to avoid the real-name system, the results of this system may not be as effective as imagine. The next element should be considered from economical point is the effect real-name system may bring to the shopping websites. Since the leading site EBay used real-name system to offer safety between the buyer and seller, most shopping websites begin to consider the adoption of real-name system. However, there is a need of consideration of the different environment. For example, one of the main features for U.S cities is its large number and relatively small size, which is totally different from other countries, while some country has so many cities that carry more than one million citizens. While at the same time, the Internet in U.S. has gone through a long history when compared with others. As a consequence of these differences, the transaction in one city may be common in China, while has a little chance in the U.S. Thus, there is no need of real-name system with safety of transaction in the same city. The expense of real-name system of shopping websites may be transferred to th e sellers in the form of commission. This may drive a lot of sellers away from this newborn market and bring the expense of the buyers. Take the largest shopping website in Asiataobao.com as an example. According to the survey carried by the website, the intention of real-name system has been received objection from the majority of the buyers, who concerns most about the personal privacy. The Donews which used to be popular among users adopted real-name system, and had its bottleneck when achieved with 2-3 million members. This experience reflects that the real-name system is certain restriction to the websites. For the shopping websites, the purpose of real-name system is to avoid malicious commentary as well as mass advertising by sellers. However, most users hold the idea that the real-name system cannot guarantee the reduction of the malicious commentary. And there is no shopping stage can avoid cheating acts. Meanwhile, some opponents argue that the Internet industry should be self-discipline. Compared with forcing the users to use their real names, it is more important to educate the Internet employees to learn self-discipline. Taking the lack of standardization in shopping websites as an instance, the most effective way to fix this problem is bringing up credit between buyers and sellers. Especially in some countries whose shopping websites are at their starting stage, the real-name system may drive some buyers away, since they are worried about the exposure of personal privacy. When considering the country which already put the real-name system into practice, Korea is the very first choice to analyze. However, the system there is not as effective as imagined. Some websites who require real names only drive their users into other websites without such requirement. Conclusion The Internet should be an open environment. The real-name system would cover too many aspects and people with different ideas. The management of Internet is a global issue, however, due to the different environment and regulations in different countries, there is no common way including real-name system to solve such complicate problem. All in all, the real-name system carries more disadvantages than its advantages. Blindly believe on the effect it brings to regulate the Internet, may receive the opponent results and inhibit the development of this newborn industry. References Nali, Z. (2008). The feasibility analysis of the Internet real-name system, Science,pp.49-54 Ping, A. W. (2005) Dont let the real-name system strangle the Internet. [Online].Retrieved from: http://home.donews.com/donews/article/8/80992.html. Date Accessed: 22, Feb. 2010 The anaylysis of real-name system in Taobao.com. (2009). [Online]. Retrieved from: http://industry.yidaba.com/fzfzpg/200908/210905121006100100000102454.shtml. Date Accessed: 22, Feb. 2010. .

Essay --

In normal cases the immune system's white blood cells protect the body from harmful substances, called pathogens. A pathogen is anything that tries to harm the body. Some examples of pathogens are fungi, bacteria, protozoans, and viruses , and blood or tissues from another species or person. The immune system produces antibodies that destroy these harmful substances. An antibody is like a protein marker produced by B-Cells to identify foreign objects. Unfortunately, as useful the immune system is for our bodies, there are many disorders and diseases related to it. Immune system disorders cause low immune activity or over immune activity in the immune system. During immune system over activity cases, the body damages and attacks its own tissues; these diseases are known as autoimmune diseases. Immune deficiency decreases the body's ability to fight pathogens, causing a higher chance for infection. Allergies are an example of the immune systems over-activity diseases. Allergies occur when the immune system reacts to foods or substances that are not harmful. The most common allergens are pets and pollen. When the immune system senses an allergen, it releases unneeded chemicals. Histamine for example, is one of the chemicals that are released after the immune system senses an allergen; it triggers an inflammatory response. Allergic reactions like this have many symptoms that can include breathing problems, eye irritation, rash, even nausea and vomiting. Asthma is a condition where the immune system becomes over-active in the bronchi. Many people with asthma suffer constriction in their bronchial tubes, which make it harder to breath. An asthma infected persons airways are almost always under inflammation. There is no total cure f... ...rittle bones, and death; 20% of people who have a thyroid storm die. The final immune disorder I want to mention is immunodeficiency. Immunodeficiency is the failure of the immune system to protect the body from harmful substances and infection. Most of the time it is caused by the absence of some components needed. The main cause of immunodeficiency around the world is the Human immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). HIV attacks and kills a crucial part of the immune system; T helper cells. T Helper-Cells kills infected cells. And without T-Cells many other immune cells cannot work properly, including B-Cells that make antibodies. A person infected with HIV may not show any signs or symptoms for years. But as HIV kills more and more T-Cells die the body becomes more vulnerable to infection. And when infected cells outnumber uninfected cells, then the patient will have AIDS.

Essay --

Late 2010, early 2011, a series of demonstrations and protests began to rise in the Arab world. These protests have become known as the "Arab Spring†, or, as someone else called it, the â€Å"Arab awakening†. Those Arab uprisings had removed many authoritarian leaders from their positions; on the other hand, some governments faced this problem using repression and some fake promises toward their people. The Arab world was living a difficult economic and social situation as in Europe in 1848. Poverty, rising food prices, inflation, human rights violation, and high unemployment were the main phenomena the Arabs were facing. In addition there was much corruption of Arab leaders as shown by some of the WikiLeaks diplomatic cables. The main reasons of the Arab revolts are not limited to internal causes, so it is important to analyze the international causes such as the failure of the war on terror, the Iraqi war and the U.S.A - European strategy of the imported democracy. The protests witnessed in some of the Arab countries are somehow an expression of dissatisfaction with the economic situation. This also creates a political tension resulting from the absence of people say in power. The Tunisian revolution that took place in the self-immolation of Mohamad Bouazizi on 18 December 2010 in protest of police corruption and ill treatment, has shaken authoritarian leaders across the Arab world in areas such as Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Bahrain. The article, which appeared under the title "A prayer for the health of the rais," began by stating that "of all the world's statesmen, the one closest to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak". Thanks to Mubarak, Egypt became a strategic ally of Israel, as well as Israel'... ...opean origins. The important fact is that the way Islamism, communism and secularism have experienced many various signification with its national, regional and religious context. Applying this to secularism, Jakobsen and Pellegrini Fenella cannel have suggested to talk about secular traditions rather than secularism, secularization, or â€Å"the secular† in india, turkey, france, and many other countries with more or less homogenous histories of secularizations and debates about secularism. If we apply this approach to the Arab Region, it might be possible to identify some interconnected secular traditions in the Levant, the gulf, and North Africa. Reactions on the need for a secular state firstly appeared in the late ottoman period, or in the arab cultural movement known as the Nahda. In the early 20th century, many ideological currents influenced Arab intelligentsias.

19th century photography Essay

Discuss how 19th century photography was utilised to construct notions of social and cultural identity. Examine at least one image from the 19th century as well as at least one example of a contemporary portrait that has a resonance with these earlier practices. Photography’s influence on modern day is so vast that it is practically impossible to imagine a world without such technology. Due to the great deal of photography surrounding us, we have gradually become accustomed to the impact photography has on our social and cultural identity, that we no longer notice just how much it affects us and the world. If we take a look back to the creation of photography in the 19th century, we are able to understand its deep effect upon the social zeitgeist and how it constructed notions of social and cultural identity. We can successfully examine exactly how society reacted to the debut of photography, as each of its practical uses that were inaccessible beforehand; both scientifically and socially, were being uncovered. See more: Is the Importance of being earnest a satirical play essay The announcement of photography in 1839 evoked the desire to apply the new medium to the portrait. Andre Disderi popularized and patented the process of The Carte de Visite – a type of photograph which unlike earlier photography, was small, cheap and easily distributed. The use of the carte spread across France, Europe and America. The idea of celebrity, beauty and fame blossomed and theatre performers ‘flocked to the studios to have their portraits taken as lasting memento’s of transitory performances.’ (Hamilton and Hargreaves 2001, p. 45-6) Eventually cartes became commercially available and the creation of family photographic albums began, later to â€Å"be handed down through the generations.† (Hamilton and Hargreaves 2001, p. 46) Sitters would order from a dozen up to a hundred copies of a print to trade them with friends and family. In the 1870s, cartes were replaced with the success of cabinet cards, eventually leading to the immense populari ty of the Kodak Box Brownie, sparking the mass phenomenon of home snapshot photography that still exists today. (Tom and Marnie Hill 2011) For the first time, the middle class was provided with a means of remembering and cherishing dead loved ones with a keepsake photograph of them post  death. Post mortem photography was most common with infants and young children due to the high childhood mortality rates. The post mortem photograph may be the only image of the child the family ever had. (Hamilton and Hargreaves 2001) Postmortem photography increased the emotional investment people were making in their loved ones. Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote to a friend â€Å"I would rather have such a memorial of one I dearly loved, than the noblest Artists’ work ever produced.† (Henisch and Henisch 1994, p. 166) Unknown photographers (The Seventh Sense, 2004) In both images, the woman in the middle is dead, propped up by their loved ones. Prior to photography, â€Å"diagrams could help to inform, maps to chart, drawings and paintings to recognize,† (Hamilton and Hargreaves 2001, p. 57) but none of these could be used as legitimate evidence. Photography’s ability to produce illustrative information and evidential knowledge far better than â€Å"the best artist could deliver† (Hamilton and Hargreaves 2001, p. 61) was quickly realized, creating a roaring up rise in the success of science. In 1839, William Henry Fox Talbot wrote that photography would be highly beneficial towards the inductive methods of modern science allowing the capture of chance natural events, which might then be followed up with experiments. (Hamilton and Hargreaves 2001) The 19th century was a period where methods of observing the social world were appearing, particularly in mathematics and statistics. Human normality and abnormality rates were often recorded and presented as a chart or graph. It was believed that majority of society tended to behave in similar ways, so it was clearly evident when a significant minority exhibited signs of abnormality, as they would diverge considerably away from the mean, or the ‘normal.’ (Hamilton and Hargreaves 2001) A link between the statistics and photography was soon discovered and photographs began being used to depict the uniformity of the normal and the diversity of the abnormal. The photography provided exact depictions, and was more specific and detailed than a graph could ever be, which eliminated possible mistakes from being  made. This abolished any unnecessary, accidental scrutiny or control over people whose health or behavior were considered a threat to the development of society. From this, photography was proved to provide truth, which ultimately ended written records. Dr Hugh Welch Diamond, a leading figure in the new treatment centered psychiatry, began a project that used photography as part of the treatment process. Diamond wanted to discover the nature of his patients’ character so he created portraits of them to study their facial features. Diamond then showed the portraits to his patients in attempts to help them understand they are ill. Although little evidence showed success in his therapeutic use of photography, Diamond is remembered for popularizing the medium of photography and lessening its mystique. He was one of the first to appreciate the concept of photography as a means of communication, understanding that a picture speaks for itself if you listen to the â€Å"telling language of nature.† (Hamilton and Hargreaves 2001, p. 81) Duchenne de Boulogne was a physician, who began to experiment with electrical currents to force upon neural action in his patients, believing this would help him understand the wiring of human bodies and consequently find a cure for his patients. (Darwin & Ekman 1998, p.404-5) Duchenne published a series of photographs exploring facial expressions in his book ‘The Mechanism of Human Facial Expression.’ His images were groundbreaking for science because of the validity of the experiment by the use of photographs. Duchenne â€Å"initiated himself into the art of photography† (Duchenne de Boulogne 1990, p. 39) because it was â€Å"only photography [which could render the subjects’ expressions] as truthful as a mirror, attaining such desirable perfection.† (Duchenne de Boulogne 1990, p. 36) Although Duchenne wasn’t the first to use photography in terms of medicine, he was the first modern doctor who worked conceptually. He thoroughly understood the principles of perspective and light, which lead to successful images similar to art photography. From Duchenne’s research he concluded that the language of facial expression was a Mechanism and that the â€Å"reason behind the lines wrinkles and folds of the moving face† (Duchenne de Boulogne 1990, pg. 1) was triggered by our inner emotions and our soul. Many of the plates published in Duchenne’s book were of one particular patient, an â€Å"old toothless man, with a thin face, whose features, without being absolutely ugly, approached ordinary triviality.† (Darwin & Ekman 1998, p. 405) The man suffered from palsy, paralyzing his face making him resistant to any pain. Using electrical devices, Duchenne could spark fake emotions in his patient allowing him to create studies on human expression. Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne de Boulogne, Untitled, 1862 (Hamilton and Hargreaves 2001, fig 49) Duchenne’s research had importance in not only medicine and photography, but also in the study of human evolution. Charles Darwin, a British naturalist owned copies of Duchenne’s work and was particularly interested in it because it supported and provided suitable visual evidence to his universalistic ideas and theories about human evolution. Darwin believed that â€Å"some expressions, such as bristling of the hair under the influence of extreme terror, or the uncovering of the teeth under that of furious rage, can hardly be understood except on the belief that man once existed in a much lower animal-like condition’ (Darwin 1872, p19.) Duchenne’s work was published in Darwins book, â€Å"The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals†, which ‘played a major role in bringing photographic evidence into the scientific world.’ (Prodger 1999, p. 401) Photography’s ability to provide traces of real events secured its role within almost all areas of science. The medium became a very important tool in anthropological research where human builds, features, skin colours, skull sizes and faces were studied, grouping certain people together due to their similarities enabling classifications, comparisons and contrasts to be made. J. T Zealy took images of black slaves to document the characteristics of the African race. The photographs were taken to support the theory of Polygenisis, aiming to convince white viewers that the continuation of slavery should be supported because the African body was so different and alienated that they must be a separate species. (Barger M.S, White W.B,  1991) J.T. Zealy. Renty, Congo, on Plantation of BF Taylor, Columbia, SC. 1850 (US Slaves, 2011) Darwins research ‘showed in considerable details that all the chief expressions exhibited by man are the same throughout the world† (Darwin 1872, p. 335) which exiled some of the racism emerging at the time, confirming that white races don’t possess any superiority over the other races. In 1882, questions about social groups and classes began to arise. Photography was used to categorize the types of people within a single race, by studying their ‘tendencies and proclivities’. (Ryan 1997, p.168) These photographs of identification allowed the development of a much more humane method of apprehending criminals, controlling prisoners, treating the insane, and limiting the spread of crime, poverty and disease. This linked to the study of criminology where photography was used as a means to recognize repeat offenders and to catalogue police records. Alphonse Bertillon standardized the criminal mug shot by creating the first system of physical measurements, photography and record-keeping that police could use to identify reoffending criminals. The police adopted his anthropometric system and called it the bertillonage stystem. (Visible Proofs 2006, para. 2) Bertillon also took an interest in genes, and how physical and mental characteristics were passed on hereditarily. He created a series of his own family according to the accepted bertillonage system as part of his research. (Hamilton and Hargreaves 2001) Alphonse Bertillon, Francois Bertillon age 23 months, 1893 (left) Alphonse Bertillon, Alphonse Bertillon, 1891 (right) (Hamilton and Hargreaves 2001, fig 56 & 62.) Photography proved to be of huge success in the field of science, but other uses for the medium were also discovered. Contemporary Australian photographer Simon Obarzanek has a resonance with 19th century anthropologic and criminology practices in the way that his subjects are being treated as studied specimens. He has no interest in the character traits of the subjects he shoots; he is only interested in their physical attributes. Obarzanek uses the same method of observing, exploring and recording the human being as anthropologists once did. Obarzaneks’ ‘80 faces’ is a series of black and white mug shot portraits of teenagers’ aged 14-17. He focuses on the face at its most basic shape, scale and proportion of features. The portraits are always presented in groups engaging spectators to compare and contrast the faces. Although the photos are quite ordinary and general on their own, once put all together as a group, each person becomes an individual. (Mutual Art 2012, article 1) Simon Obarzanek, Untitled (80 faces) (1-6), 2002 (Karen Woodburd Gallery, 2012) Simon Obarzanek, Untitled (80 faces) (19-24), 2002 (Karen Woodburd Gallery, 2012) Again, Obarzanek portrays this sense of categorization resonant to 19th century anthropology in his series 10pm-1am. He records anonymous females at the times of 10pm-1am and as spectators we are engaged to study the subjects, creating our own ideas of their personality and habits. Simon Obarzanek, 10pm – 1am No.2,No.7, No.6, 2007 (Karen Woodburd Gallery, 2012) Similarly, contemporary German artists Bernd and Hilla Becher created black and white photographic typologies of industrial structures, fascinated by the similar shapes in which certain buildings were designed. The Bechers would travel to large mines and steels mills and photograph the major structures from the front, making them appear as simple diagrams. When displayed, images of structures with similar functions are displayed next to each other, inviting viewers to compare their forms and designs. A supporting photograph of the overall landscape was also displayed to give  the structures context. (Moma 2012, article 1) Although the Bechers’ didn’t create portraits of humans like 19th century anthropology, their work is very much the same thing. The photographs still study the features of the subject and put them in categories. Bernd and Hilla Becher, Winding Towers, Germany 1971-1991 (Moma 2012) Prior to the introduction of photography in 1839, society had never encountered anything quite like it. Once the medium was introduced to the world, it appeared to be useful in countless aspects of life; as a tool for evidence, identification and recording and is still used today for many of the same reasons. It was inevitable that the medium would create notions of social and cultural identity during the 19th century due to its groundbreaking effects in science, art and social living. Photography has come a long way since its invention and has made significant improvement making the medium a worldwide phenomena. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Barger M.S, & White W.B, The Daguerreotype: Nineteenth-Century Technology and modern Science, Smithsonian Institution, 1991 Darwin, C, 1872, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Fontana Press, London Darwin, C, & Ekman, P 1998, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, With Introduction, Afterword and Commentarries by Ekman, P. 3rd edn. Oxford university Press, New York Duchenne, G-B, 1990, The Mechanism of Human Facial Expression, Cambridge University Press, USA Hamilton, P & Hargreaves, R, 2001, The Beautiful and the Damned, Lund Humphries in association with The National Portrait Gallery, London. Henisch, Heinz K. & Henisch, Bridget A., 1994, The Photographic Experience 1839-1914, Pennsylvania: Penn State Press Hill, M & Hill, T, 2011 Wyandot County (Images of America), Arcadia Publishing Proger, P, â€Å"Photography and the expressions of the emotions.† Appendix III, p399-410, in Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, 1872 , with introduction, afterward and commentaries by Paul Ekman, London: Fontana Press Ryan, J R, 1997l Picturing Empire: Photography and the Visualisation of the British Empire, Reaktion Books, London Websites: Karen Woodbury Gallery 2012, 80 faces, 10pm-1am, photographs, viewed 20 May 2012, < http://www.kwgallery.com/artist/simon-obarzanek/10pm-.-1am-no.6/21/291> Moma 2012, Exhibitions, viewed on 12 May 2012, Mutual Art 2012, Obarzanek, Simon, 80 Faces, MutualArt Services Inc., viewed on 12 May 2012 Seventh Sense, The, 2004, Unknown photographers, Photograph, viewed 12 May 2012, < http://ken_ashford.typepad.com/blog/2009/08/more-post-mortem-photography.html>. US Slaves 2011, Delia, American born, daughter of Renty, Congo & Renty, Congo, on Plantation of BF Taylor, Columbia, SC., photograph, viewed 11 May 2012, < http://usslave.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/slave-daguerreotypes-for-louis-aggassiz.html>. Visible Proofs 2006, Forensic Views of the Body, Alphonse Bertillon, US National Library of Medicine, viewed on 12 May 2012,

Java-Whitepaper Essay

This white paper compares C++/Qt with Java/AWT/Swing for developing large-scale, real-world software with graphical user interfaces. References are made to independent reports that examine various aspects of the two toolsets. 1 A Comparison of Qt and Java 1. What Do We Compare? When selecting an environment for a large software development project, there are many aspects that must be considered. The programming language is one of the most significant aspects, since its choice has considerable impact on what other options are available. For example, in a GUI development project, developers will need a GUI library that provides ready-made user interface components, for example, buttons and menus. Since the selection of the GUI library itself has a large impact on the development of a project, it is not uncommon for the GUI library to be chosen first, with the programming language being determined by the languages for which the library is available. Usually, there is only one language per library. Other software components like database access libraries or communication libraries must also be taken into consideration, but they rarely have such a strong impact on the overall design as the GUI libraries. In this white paper, the objective is to compare the C++/Qt environment with the Java/AWT/Swing environment. In order to do this in the most useful way, we will begin by comparing the programming languages involved, i. e.C++ and Java, and then compare the two GUI libraries, Qt for C++ and AWT/Swing for Java. 2. Comparing C++ and Java When discussing the various benefits and drawbacks of particular programming languages, the debate often degenerates into arguments that are based on personal experience and preference rather than any objective criteria. Personal preferences and experience should be taken into account when selecting a programming language for a project, but because it is subjective, it cannot be considered here. Instead we will look at issues such as programmer-efficiency, runtime-efficiency and memory-efficiency since these can be quantified and have been examined in scientifically conducted research, although we will also incorporate information based on the practical exerience of projects that have been implemented in our own company. 2. 1. Programmer-efficiency Programmer-efficiency describes how efficiently (i. e. how quickly and accurately) a programmer with a given degree of experience and knowledge can implement a certain set of requirements in a particular programming language, including debugging and project setup time. Since developer salaries are one of the primary cost factors for any programming project, programmer-efficiency greatly affects the 2 A Comparison of Qt and Java cost-efficiency of the project. To some extent, programmer-efficiency is also determined by the tools available. The main design goal of Java is increased programmer-efficiency compared to other general-purpose programming languages, rather than increased memory- or runtime-efficiency. Java has several features designed to make it more programmer-efficient. For example, unlike C++ (or C), the programmer does not have to explicitly â€Å"free† (give back) allocated memory resources to the operating system. Freeing unused memory (garbage collection) is handled automatically by the Java runtime system, at the expense of memory- and runtime-efficiency (see below). This liberates the programmer from the burden of keeping track of allocated memory, a tedious task that is a major cause of bugs. This feature alone should significantly increase the programmer-efficiency of Java programmers, compared to C++ (or C) programmers. Research shows that in practice, garbage collection and other Java features, do not have a major influence on the programmer-efficiency. One of the classic software estimation models, Barry Boehm’s CoCoMo1 predicts the cost and schedule of a software project using cost drivers which take into account variables like the general experience of a programmers, the experience with the programming language in question, the targeted reliability of the program, etc. Boehm writes that the amount of effort per source statement was highly independent of the language level. Other research, for example, A method of programming measurement and estimation by C. E. Walston and C. P. Felix of IBM2, points in the same direction. Both the reports cited here pre-date the advent of Java by many years, although they seem to reveal a general principle that the sophistication of a general-purpose programming language has, compared with other aspects, like the experience of the developers, no significant influence on the overall project costs. There is more recent research that explicitly includes Java and which supports this hypothesis. In An empirical comparison of C, C++, Java, Perl, Python, Rexx, and Tcl3, Lutz Prechelt of the University of Karlsruhe, describes an experiment he conducted in which computer science students were assigned a particular design and development task and asked to implement the specification provided in any of the languages C, C++, or Java which they could freely choose according to their personal preferences (the other languages were examined in a different part of the research project). The data gathered shows almost the same results for C++ and Java (with C running third in most aspects). This is also backed up by our own experience: if programmers can choose their favorite programming language (which is usually the one they have most experience of), programmers with the same level of experience (measured for example, in years of programming experience in general) achieve about the same programmer-efficiency. Another interesting aspect that we noted (but which is not yet supported by any formal 3 A Comparison of Qt and Java research) is that less experienced developers seem to achieve somewhat better results with Java, medium-experienced developers achieve about the same results with both programming languages, nd experienced developers achieve better results with C++. These findings could be due to better tools being available for C++; nevertheless this is an aspect that must be taken into account. An interesting way to quantify programmer-efficiency is the Function Point method developed by Capers Jones. Function points are a software metric that only depend on the functionality, not on the implementation. Working from the function points, it is possible to compute the lines of code needed per function point as well as the language level which describes how many function points can be implemented in a certain amount of time. Intriguingly, both the values for the lines of code per function point and the language level are identical for C++ and Java (6 for the language level, compared with C’s 3. 5 and Tcl’s 5, and 53 for the lines of code per function point, compared with C’s 91 and Tcl’s 64). In conclusion: both research and practice contradict the claim that Java programmers achieve a higher programmer-efficiency than C++ programmers. 2. 2. Runtime-efficiency We have seen that Java’s programmer-efficiency appears to be illusory. We will now examine its runtime efficiency. Again, Prechelt provides useful data. The amount of data he provides is huge, but he arrives at the conclusion that â€Å"a Java program must be expected to run at least 1. 22 times as long as a C/C++ program†. Note that he says at least; the average runtime of Java programs is even longer. Our own experience shows that Java programs tend to run about 2-3 times as long than their equivalent C/C++ programs for the same task. Not surprisingly, Java loses even more ground when the tasks are CPU-bound. When it comes to programs with a graphical user interface, the increased latency of Java programs is worse than the runtime performance hit. Usability studies show that users do not care about whether a long running task takes, say, two or three minutes, but they do care when a program does not show an immediate reaction to their interaction, for example when they press a button. These studies show that the limit of what a user accepts before they consider a program to be â€Å"unresponsive† can be as little as 0. 7 seconds. We’ll return to this issue when we compare graphical user interfaces in Java and C++ programs. An explanation about why Java programs are slower than C++ is in order. C++ programs are compiled by the C++ compiler into a binary format that can be executed directly by the CPU; the whole program execution thus takes place in 4 A Comparison of Qt and Java hardware. (This is an oversimplification since most modern CPUs execute microcode, but this does not affect the issues discussed here. ) On the other hand, the Java compiler compiles the source code into â€Å"bytecode† which is not executed directly by the CPU, but rather by another piece of software, the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). The JVM in turn, runs on the CPU. The execution of the bytecode of a Java program does not take place in (fast) hardware, but instead in (much slower) software emulation. Work has been undertaken to develop â€Å"Just in Time† (JIT) compilers to address Java’s runtime efficiency problem, but no universal solution has yet emerged. It is the semi-interpreted nature of Java programs that makes the â€Å"compile once, run anywhere† approach of Java possible in the first place. Once a Java program is compiled into bytecode, it can be executed on any platform which has a JVM. In practice, this is not always the case, because of implementation differences in different JVMs, and because of the necessity to sometimes use native, non-Java code, usually written in C or C++, together with Java programs. But is the use of platform-independent bytecode the right approach for crossplatform applications? With a good cross-platform toolkit like Qt and good compilers on the various platforms, programmers can achieve almost the same by compiling their source code once for each platform: â€Å"write once, compile everywhere†. It can be argued that for this to work, developers need access to all the platforms they want to support, while with Java, in theory at least, developers only need access to one platform running the Java development tools and a JVM. In practice, no responsible software manufacturer will ever certify their software for a platform the software hasn’t been tested on, so they would still need access to all the relevant platforms. The question arises why it should be necessary to run the Java Virtual Machine in software; if a program can be implemented in software, it should also be possible to have hardware implement the same unctionality. This is what the Java designers had in mind when they developed the language; they assumed that the performance penalty would disappear as soon as Java CPUs that implement the JVM in hardware would become available. But after five years, such Java CPUs have not become generally available. Java automatically de-allocates (frees) unused memory. The programmer allocates memory, and the JVM keeps track of all the allocated memory blocks and the references to them. As soon as a memory block is no longer referenced, it can be reclaimed. This is done in a process called â€Å"garbage collection† in which the JVM periodically checks all the allocated memory blocks, and removes any which are no longer referred to. Garbage collection is very convenient, but the trade offs are greater memory consumption and slower runtime speed.. With C++, the programmer can (and should) delete blocks of memory as soon as they are no longer required. With Java, blocks are not deleted until the next garbage collection run, and this depends on the implementation on the JVM being used. Prechtelt provides figures which state that on average (†¦ ) and with a confidence of 80%, the Java programs consume at least 32 MB (or 297%) more memory than the C/C++ programs (†¦ ). In addition to the higher memory requirements, the garbage collection process itself requires processing power which is consequently not available to the actual application functionality, leading to slower overall runtimes. Since the garbage collector runs periodically, it can occasionally lead to Java programs â€Å"freezing† for a few seconds. The best JVM implementations keep the occurrence of such freezes to a minimum, but the freezes have not been eliminated entirely. When dealing with external programs and devices, for example, during I/O or when interacting with a database, it is usually desirable to close the file or database connection as soon as it is no longer required. Using C++’s destructors, this happens as soon as the programmer calls delete. In Java, closing may not occur until the next garbage collecting sweep, which at best may tie up resources unnecessarily, and at worst risks the open resources ending up in an inconsistent state. The fact that Java programs keep memory blocks around longer than is strictly necessary is especially problematic for embedded devices where memory is often at a premium. It is no coincidence that there is (at the time of writing) no complete implementation of the Java platform for embedded devices, only partial implementations that implement a subset. The main reason why garbage collection is more expensive than explicit memory management by the programmer is that with the Java scheme, information is lost. In a C++ program, the programmer knows both where their memory blocks are (by storing pointers to them) and knows when they are not needed any longer. In a Java 6 A Comparison of Qt and Java program, the latter information is not available to the JVM (even though it is known to the programmer), and thus the JVM has to manually find unreferenced blocks. A Java programmer can make use of their knowledge of when a memory block is not needed any longer by deleting all references that are still around and triggering garbage collection manually, but this requires as much effort on the part of the programmer as with the explicit memory management in C++, and still the JVM has to look at each block during garbage collection to determine which ones are no longer used. Technically, there is nothing that prevents the implementation and use of garbage collection in C++ programs, and there are commercial programs and libraries available that offer this. But because of the disadvantages mentioned above, few C++ programmers make use of this. The Qt toolkit takes a more efficient approach to easing the memory management task for its programmers: when an object is deleted, all dependant objects are automatically deleted too. Qt’s approach does not interfere with the programmer’s freedom to delete manually when they wish to. Because manual memory management burdens programmers, C and C++ have been accused of being prone to generate unstable, bug-ridden software. Although the danger of producing memory corruption (which typically leads to program crashes) is certainly higher with C and C++, good education, tools and experience can greatly reduce the risks. Memory management can be learned like anything else, and there are a large number of tools available, both commercial and open source, that help programmers ensure that there are no memory errors in the program; for example, Insure++ by Parasoft, Purify by Rational and the open source Electric Fence. C++’s flexible memory management system also makes it possible to write custom memory profilers that are adapted to whichever type of application a programmer writes. To sum up this discussion, we have found C++ to provide much better runtime- and memory-efficiency than Java, while having comparable programmer-efficiency. 2. 4. Available libraries and tools The Java platform includes an impressive number of packages that provide hundreds of classes for all kinds of purposes, including graphical user interfaces, security, networking and other tasks. This is certainly an advantage of the Java platform. For each package available on the Java platform, there is at least one corresponding library for C++, although it can be difficult to assemble the various libraries that would be needed for a C++ project and make them all work together correctly. However, this strength of Java is also one of its weaknesses. It becomes increasingly difficult for the individual programmer to find their way through the huge APIs. For any given task, you can be almost certain that somewhere, there is 7 A Comparison of Qt and Java functionality that would accomplish the task or at least help with its implementation. But it can be very difficult to find the right package and the right class. Also, with an increasing number of packages, the size of the Java platform has increased considerably. This has led to subsets e. g. , for embedded systems, but with a subset, the advantage of having everything readily available disappears. As an aside, the size of the Java platform makes it almost impossible for smaller manufacturers to ship a Java system independent from Sun Microsystems, Java’s inventor, and this reduces competition. If Java has an advantage on the side of available libraries, C++ clearly has an advantage when it comes to available tools. Because of the considerable maturity of the C and C++ family of languages, many tools for all aspects of application development have been developed, including: design, debugging, and profiling tools. While there are Java tools appearing all the time, they seldom measure up to their C++ counterparts. This is often even the case with tools with the same functionality coming from the same manufacturer; compare, for example, Rational’s Quantify, a profiler for Java and for C/C++. The most important tool any developer of a compiled language uses, is still the compiler. C++ has the advantage of having compilers that are clearly superior in execution speed. In order to be able to ship their compilers (and other tools) on various platforms, vendors tend to implement their Java tools in Java itself, with all the aforementioned memory and efficiency problems. There are a few Java compilers written in a native language like C (for example, IBM’s Jikes), but these are the exception, and seldom used. 3. Comparing AWT/Swing and Qt So far, we have compared the programming language Java and the programming language C++. But as we discussed at the beginning of this article, the programming language is only one of the aspects to consider in GUI development. We will now compare the packages for GUI development that are shipped with Java, i. e. AWT and Swing, with the cross-platform GUI toolkit, Qt, from the Norwegian supplier, Trolltech. We have confined the comparision on the C++ side to the Qt GUI toolkit, since unlike MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) and similar toolkits, This seems to contradict Java’s cross-platform philosophy and may be due to the the initial AWT version being reputedly developed in under fourteen days. Because of these and a number of other problems with the AWT, it has since been augmented by the Swing toolkit. Swing relies on the AWT (and consequently on the native libraries) only for very basic things like creating rectangular windows, handling events and executing primitive drawing operations. Everything else is handled within Swing, including all the drawing of the GUI components. This does away with the problem of applications looking and behaving differently on different platforms. Unfortunately, because Swing is mostly implemented in Java itself, it lacks efficiency. As a result, Swing programs are not only slow when performing computations, but also when drawing and handling the user interface, leading to poor responsiveness. As mentioned earlier, poor responsiveness is one of the things that users are least willing to tolerate in a GUI application. On today’s standard commodity hardware, it is not unusual to be able to watch how a Swing button is redrawn when the mouse is pressed over it. While this situation will surely improve with faster hardware, this does not address the fundamental problem that complex user interfaces developed with Swing are inherently slow. The Qt toolkit follows a similar approach; like Swing, it only relies on the native libraries only for very basic things and handles the drawing of GUI components itself. This brings Qt the same advantages as Swing (for example, applications look and behave the same on different platforms), but since Qt is entirely implemented in C++ and thus compiled to native code; it does not have Swing’s efficiency problems. User interfaces written with Qt are typically very fast; because of Qt’s smart use of caching techniques, they are sometimes even faster than comparable programs written using only the native libraries. Theoretically, an optimal native program should always be at least as fast as an equivalent optimal Qt program; however, making a native program optimal is much more difficult and requires more programming skills than making a Qt program optimal. Both Qt and Swing employ a styling technique that lets programs display in any one of a number of styles, independent of the platform they are running on. This is possible because both Qt and Swing handle the drawing themselves and can draw GUI elements in whichever style is desired. Qt even ships with a style that emulates the default look-and-feel in Swing programs, along with styles that emulate the 9 A Comparison of Qt and Java Win32 look-and-feel, the Motif look-and-feel, and—in the Macintosh version— the MacOS X Aqua style. 3. 2. Programming Paradigms In Qt and Swing While programming APIs to some extent are a matter of the programmers’ personal taste, there are some APIs that lend themselves to simple, short, and elegant application code far more readily than others.