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
  • Hour 14. Laying Out a User Interface
    • Using Layout Managers
    • Workshop: Laying Out an Application
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Quiz
    • Activities
  • 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

Hour 14. Laying Out a User Interface

When you begin designing graphical user interfaces for your Java programs, one obstacle you face is that your components can move around. Whenever a container changes size—such as when a user resizes a frame—the components within the container will rearrange themselves to fit within its new dimensions.

This fluidity works in your favor, because it takes into account the differences in how interface components are displayed on different operating systems. On the same Java program, a clickable button might look different in Windows than it does in Linux or Mac OS. This is a departure from languages such as Microsoft Visual Basic, where you normally specify exactly where a component will appear and what it looks like.

Components are organized in an interface by using a set of classes called layout managers. These classes define how components will be displayed within a container—during the previous hour, you used the FlowLayout class to arrange components. Each container in an interface can have its own layout manager.

The following topics will be covered:

• Creating a layout manager
• Assigning a layout manager to a container
• Using panels to organize components in an interface
• Working with unusual layouts
• Creating a prototype for a Java application

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