The JFC Swing Tutorial: A Guide to Constructing GUIs - Softcover

Walrath, Kathy; Campione, Mary

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201433214 ISBN 13: 9780201433210

Publisher: Addison-Wesley, 1999

Synopsis

From the author of the "Java Tutorial" comes a book that meets the huge demand for information on Swing, the part of the JFC that streamlines the creation of cross-platform, custom-made graphical users interfaces. The CD-ROM contains the text online and all the examples.

About this title

About the Author

Kathy Walrath is a senior technical writer on the Swing team at Sun Microsystems. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Kathy wrote extensively about Unix, Mach, and NextStep. Since 1993, Kathy has been writing specifications and how-to guides for the Java platform.

Mary Campione is a senior technical writer at Sun Microsystems, where she has been writing about the Java Platform sine 1995. Mary graduated from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo, with a B.S. in Computer Science; she has been a technical writer and programmer for 13 years. She specializes in writing programmer's documentation for emerging software technologies. Among her other books, she is co-author of PostScript by Example, which received a five-star rating from PC Report.

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From the Back Cover

From the authors of the best-selling Java(TM) Tutorial , here is a guide to using the new Swing components, which are provided by the Java(TM) Foundation Classes (JFC). Developed and co-written by the lead writer on the Swing team, this book covers everything you need to know to write GUIs that use Swing components. The JFC Swing Tutorial uses a task-oriented, example-driven approach to introduce you to fundamental concepts and applications.

Designed to be read either cover-to-cover or as a quick reference, this book explains how to use each Swing component, perform layout, do basic drawing, and convert 1.1 AWT programs to Swing. This book covers Swing 1.1.1, which is available both as an extension to JDK(TM) 1.1 and as a core part of the Java(R) 2 Platform.

Chapters include:

A quick start chapter, including a tour of a Swing application's code

Swing features and concepts

How-to information for all the Swing componentslabels, tool tips, buttons, menus, tables, scroll panes, text components, and more

Instructions on how to write event handlers

How to use layout managers

Tips on solving common problems

Guidance on working with graphics

How to convert from AWT components to Swing components

An appendix lists the complete source code for dozens of example applications and applets. The accompanying CD-ROM includes Swing 1.1.1, JDK 1.1, the Java 2 Platform, and the hypertext version of all three Java Tutorial books.

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From the Inside Flap

This volume of The Java(TM) Tutorial tells you how to write GUIs that use the Java(TM) Foundation Classes (JFC) "Swing" components. You can use the information in this book both with the Java 2 platform (Standard Edition, v 1.2 and compatible versions) and with JDK(TM) 1.1 (with additional JFC 1.1 libraries).

The online form of The Java(TM) Tutorial has covered the Swing components since their first public early access release--Swing 0.2, which came out in July, 1997. Through the many early access releases, the Tutorial kept pace with API changes and additions. Readers and reviewers kept us on our toes, helping us improve each page tremendously. However, readers often requested a printed version of the online material. This book is that version. About This Book's Structure

The hyperlinked origins of this book may be evident as you read it. For instance, underlined phrases throughout this book mimic online links. A link to material within this book is followed by the appropriate page number. A link to material outside this book, such as to the JDK API documentation, is accompanied by a footnote that contains a URL. Other evidence of this book's online origin can be found on the first page of each lesson and major section, which provides the URL where the lesson or section can be found in the online Tutorial.

You might be wondering why we use the terms "trails" and "lessons." We know that people don't learn linearly. People learn by posing a problem, solving it, uncovering other problems, solving them, and learning information as the need arises. Our original vision for the online Tutorial was to encourage and enable this type of thinking and learning. We envisioned a mountain of ski trails, where at any junction, a reader could choose the most interesting or appropriate path at that time. But we also needed some sort of structure and organization, so we created a two-tiered hierarchy: trails at the top level and lessons within them. This book consists of the largest Tutorial trail, Creating a GUI with JFC/Swing. Acknowledgments

We would like to thank every member of the Swing project. They're a great team of people who do excellent work and are fun to be around. For help with general technical issues, we depended on two people. Hans Muller, the Swing project lead, provided not only reviews of individual sections, but also gave sound advice and help with overall issues. Amy Fowler reviewed individual sections and, as someone with broad knowledge of both the AWT and Swing, helped us to correctly describe such architectural features as graphics support.

Reviewers of individual how-to sections include Philip Milne, who gave masterful reviews of the table and list portions and supplied the sorter example. Georges Saab reviewed the menu- and action-related discussions. Scott Violet provided invaluable help with the text and tree pages. Jeff Dinkins reviewed several sections and also provided quality-of-life enhancements such as tile samples and miniature phone lists.

Earl Johnson and Peter Korn, from the accessibility team, gently prodded us into covering accessibility well. Their demos, coaching, and careful review of the accessibility section helped us improve it greatly.

It's always a pleasure working with Pat Chan, whose early review of this book helped us determine its scope and approach.

Other reviewers and Swing team members that we'd like to thank include Mike Albers, Tim Prinzing, Tom Santos, Steve Wilson, Rich Schiavi, Tom Ball, Jim Graham, and Hania Gajewska. Rick Levenson, the original manager of the Swing project, was very supportive. We look forward to working with the new manager, Howard Rosen.

Alison Huml performed production duties on this book, juggling coursework, paid work, RSI, and a household move. Without her, this book wouldn't exist. She also drew most of the pictures in this book, with the exception of the cartoony ones, which were drawn by Kathy's sweetheart Nathan.

Jennifer Ball helped us at crucial points, doing such tasks as checking API tables and code snippets, and converting graphics examples.

Lisa Friendly, our manager and series editor, gave us the freedom and support necessary to do our work--and enjoy it. Stans Kleijnen and Jon Kannegaard, respectively the director of product engineering and the vice president of the Java platform, also contributed to an atmosphere that let everyone do their best.

We'd also like to thank the team at Addison-Wesley: Mike Hendrickson, Sarah Weaver, Evelyn Pyle, Jacquelyn Young, Marina Lang, and Julie DeBaggis. They've been a pleasure to work with.

Finally, thank you to our readers.

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

This volume of The Java(TM) Tutorial tells you how to write GUIs that use the Java(TM) Foundation Classes (JFC) "Swing" components. You can use the information in this book both with the Java 2 platform (Standard Edition, v 1.2 and compatible versions) and with JDK(TM) 1.1 (with additional JFC 1.1 libraries).

The online form of The Java(TM) Tutorial has covered the Swing components since their first public early access release--Swing 0.2, which came out in July, 1997. Through the many early access releases, the Tutorial kept pace with API changes and additions. Readers and reviewers kept us on our toes, helping us improve each page tremendously. However, readers often requested a printed version of the online material. This book is that version.

About This Book's Structure

The hyperlinked origins of this book may be evident as you read it. For instance, underlined phrases throughout this book mimic online links. A link to material within this book is followed by the appropriate page number. A link to material outside this book, such as to the JDK API documentation, is accompanied by a footnote that contains a URL. Other evidence of this book's online origin can be found on the first page of each lesson and major section, which provides the URL where the lesson or section can be found in the online Tutorial.

You might be wondering why we use the terms "trails" and "lessons." We know that people don't learn linearly. People learn by posing a problem, solving it, uncovering other problems, solving them, and learning information as the need arises. Our original vision for the online Tutorial was to encourage and enable this type of thinking and learning. We envisioned a mountain of ski trails, where at any junction, a reader could choose the most interesting or appropriate path at that time. But we also needed some sort of structure and organization, so we created a two-tiered hierarchy: trails at the top level and lessons within them. This book consists of the largest Tutorial trail, Creating a GUI with JFC/Swing.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank every member of the Swing project. They're a great team of people who do excellent work and are fun to be around. For help with general technical issues, we depended on two people. Hans Muller, the Swing project lead, provided not only reviews of individual sections, but also gave sound advice and help with overall issues. Amy Fowler reviewed individual sections and, as someone with broad knowledge of both the AWT and Swing, helped us to correctly describe such architectural features as graphics support.

Reviewers of individual how-to sections include Philip Milne, who gave masterful reviews of the table and list portions and supplied the sorter example. Georges Saab reviewed the menu- and action-related discussions. Scott Violet provided invaluable help with the text and tree pages. Jeff Dinkins reviewed several sections and also provided quality-of-life enhancements such as tile samples and miniature phone lists.

Earl Johnson and Peter Korn, from the accessibility team, gently prodded us into covering accessibility well. Their demos, coaching, and careful review of the accessibility section helped us improve it greatly.

It's always a pleasure working with Pat Chan, whose early review of this book helped us determine its scope and approach.

Other reviewers and Swing team members that we'd like to thank include Mike Albers, Tim Prinzing, Tom Santos, Steve Wilson, Rich Schiavi, Tom Ball, Jim Graham, and Hania Gajewska. Rick Levenson, the original manager of the Swing project, was very supportive. We look forward to working with the new manager, Howard Rosen.

Alison Huml performed production duties on this book, juggling coursework, paid work, RSI, and a household move. Without her, this book wouldn't exist. She also drew most of the pictures in this book, with the exception of the cartoony ones, which were drawn by Kathy's sweetheart Nathan.

Jennifer Ball helped us at crucial points, doing such tasks as checking API tables and code snippets, and converting graphics examples.

Lisa Friendly, our manager and series editor, gave us the freedom and support necessary to do our work--and enjoy it. Stans Kleijnen and Jon Kannegaard, respectively the director of product engineering and the vice president of the Java platform, also contributed to an atmosphere that let everyone do their best.

We'd also like to thank the team at Addison-Wesley: Mike Hendrickson, Sarah Weaver, Evelyn Pyle, Jacquelyn Young, Marina Lang, and Julie DeBaggis. They've been a pleasure to work with.

Finally, thank you to our readers.

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201433214
• ISBN 13: 9780201433210
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 953