Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell

CHAPTER 23

Thejavax.swing Package

This large package contains the most important classes and interfaces of Swing.

Swing is a core part of Java 1.2 and is also available as a standard extension to

Java 1.1. The GUI component classes are at the heart of Swing. These classes have

names that begin with the letter J. Figur e 23-1 shows the hierarchy of Swing com-

ponents in javax.swing. Note that this diagram does not show the fact that all the

Swing components implement javax.accessibility.Accessible; see the individual class

synopses for this information.

Most Swing components rely on a model object to hold their state information.

Various interfaces define the methods that these state objects must implement, and

various abstract and concrete classes implement these interfaces. These model

inter faces and classes are recognizable by the word “Model” in their names. Figure

23-2 shows the model objects and layout managers in javax.swing.

Classes with the word “Manager” in their names typically manage some important

part of the Swing user-inter face or application environment. Other important

classes and interfaces defined by this package include: Action, Icon, KeyStroke, Timer,

and SwingUtilities. Figur e 23-3 shows the rest of the classes and interfaces in

javax.swing.

All Swing components are accessible, which means that they implement the

javax.accessiblity.Accessible inter face and define getAccessibleContext() ...