Learning Java

Chapter 13. Swing

Swing is Java’s user interface toolkit. It was developed during the life of SDK 1.1 and now is part of the core APIs in Java 2 (née JDK 1.2). Swing provides classes representing interface items like windows, buttons, combo boxes, trees, grids, and menus—everything you need to build a user interface for your Java application. The javax.swing package (and its numerous subpackages) contain the Swing user interface classes.^[40]

Swing is part of a larger collection of software called the Java Foundation Classes (JFC). JFC includes the following APIs:

• The Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT), the original user interface toolkit

• Swing, the new user interface toolkit

• Accessibility, which provides tools for integrating nonstandard input and output devices into your user interfaces

• The 2D API, a comprehensive set of classes for high-quality drawing

• Drag and Drop, an API that supports the drag-and-drop metaphor

JFC is the largest and most complicated part of the standard Java platform, so it shouldn’t be any surprise that we’ll take several chapters to discuss it. In fact, we won’t even get to talk about all of it, just the most important parts—Swing and the 2D API. Here’s the lay of the land:

• This chapter covers the basic concepts you need to understand how to build user interfaces with Swing.

• Chapter 14, discusses the basic components from which user interfaces are built: lists, text fields, checkboxes, and so on.

• Chapter 15, dives further into the Swing toolkit, describing text ...