Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 24 Hours

By Rogers Cadenhead

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • About the Technical Editor
  • Acknowledgments
  • We Want to Hear from You!
  • Reader Services
  • Introduction
  • Hour 1. Becoming a Programmer
  • Hour 2. Writing Your First Program
  • Hour 3. Vacationing in Java
  • Hour 4. Understanding How Java Programs Work
  • Part II: Learning the Basics of Programming
  • Hour 5. Storing and Changing Information in a Program
  • Hour 6. Using Strings to Communicate
  • Hour 7. Using Conditional Tests to Make Decisions
  • Hour 8. Repeating an Action with Loops
  • Part III: Working with Information in New Ways
  • Hour 9. Storing Information with Arrays
  • Hour 10. Creating Your First Object
  • Hour 11. Describing What Your Object Is Like
  • Hour 12. Making the Most of Existing Objects
  • Part IV: Programming a Graphical User Interface
  • Hour 13. Building a Simple User Interface
    • Swing and the Abstract Windowing Toolkit
    • Using Components
    • Workshop: Creating Your Own Component
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Quiz
    • Activities
  • Hour 14. Laying Out a User Interface
  • Hour 15. Responding to User Input
  • Hour 16. Building a Complex User Interface
  • Part V: Creating Multimedia Programs
  • Hour 17. Creating Interactive Web Programs
  • Hour 18. Handling Errors in a Program
  • Hour 19. Creating a Threaded Program
  • Hour 20. Reading and Writing Files
  • Part VI: Creating Multimedia Programs
  • Hour 21. Using Fonts and Color
  • Hour 22. Playing Sound Files
  • Hour 23. Working with Graphics
  • Hour 24. Creating Animation
  • Part VII: Appendixes
  • Appendix A. Tackling New Features of Java 2 Version 1.4
  • Appendix B. Using the Java 2 Software Development Kit
  • Appendix C. Programming with the Java 2 Software Development Kit
  • Appendix D. Using Sun ONE Studio
  • Appendix E. Where to Go from Here: Java Resources
  • Appendix F. This Book's Web Site

Swing and the Abstract Windowing Toolkit

Because Java is a cross-platform language that enables you to write programs for many different operating systems, its windowing software must be flexible. Instead of catering only to the Microsoft Windows-style of windowing or the Apple Macintosh version, it must handle both along with other platforms.

With Java, the development of a program's user interface is based on two sets of classes: the Abstract Windowing Toolkit and Swing. These classes enable you to create a graphical user interface and receive input from the user.

Swing and the Abstract Windowing Toolkit include everything you need to write programs that use a graphical user interface, which is also called a GUI (pronounced gooey, as in Huey, Dewey, and Louie). With Java's windowing classes, you can create a GUI that includes all of the following and more:

• Buttons, check boxes, labels, and other simple components
• Text fields, sliders, and other more complex components
• Pull-down menus and pop-up menus
• Windows, frames, dialog boxes, and applet windows

During this hour and the next, you will create and organize graphical user interfaces in Java. Afterwards in Hour 15, "Responding to User Input," you will enable those interfaces to receive mouse clicks and other user input.

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