In looking at various software it seems like they are begging to be refactored into libraries.

Native

native serial library

• This doesn't appear to exist. minicom, pilot-link, and rxtx (java serial support), all have code for dealing with the differences of serial communications on different systems. Why a library:
• it be easier to make these programs on new systems.
  • minicom and pilot-link could work on windows
  • all three could use better serial port detection support, handling usb and bluetooth serial ports.
  • rxtx would be easier to undertand if the native serial library was factored out.

Java

Generic Canvas support

There is a lot overlap between swing and swt. There are also a lot of canvas applications for swing and swt (even some for awt).

• The vex xml editor has an example of how to write a abstraction layer so the same
  code can run on both toolkits.
• The layer could support emulation of either swt or swing, that would allow existing canvas components to work with minimal modifications on the other toolkit.

Programs that would benifit:

• CC Graph, Dynamica code could run on swt.
• Eclipse GEF could run on swing

Problems:

• in addition to the cavas code these programs general have toolbars, and popup windows. Those would have to be made generic too, but that would probably have to be done a per application basis. It doesnt' seem worth it to write a full emulation of the entire swt or swing toolkit.