Introducing Swing
I
n Part II, you saw how to build user interfaces with the AWT classes. Although the AWT
is still a crucial part of Java, its component set is no longer widely used to create graphic
user interfaces. Today, most programmers use Swing for this purpose. Swing is a set of
classes that provides more powerful and flexible GUI components than does the AWT. Simply
put, Swing provides the look and feel of the modern Java GUI.
Coverage of Swing is divided between two chapters. This chapter introduces Swing. It
begins by describing Swing's core concepts. It then shows the general form of a Swing
program, including both applications and applets. It concludes by explaining how painting
is accomplished in Swing. The following chapter presents several commonly used Swing
components. It is important to understand that the number of classes and interfaces in the
Swing packages is quite large, and they can't all be covered in this topic. (In fact, full
coverage of Swing requires an entire book of its own.) However, these two chapters will
give you a basic understanding of this important topic.
The Origins of Swing
Swing did not exist in the early days of Java. Rather, it was a response to deficiencies present
in Java's original GUI subsystem: the Abstract Window Toolkit. The AWT defines a basic set
of controls, windows, and dialog boxes that support a usable, but limited graphical interface.
One reason for the limited nature of the AWT is that it translates its various visual components
into their corresponding, platform-specific equivalents, or peers. This means that the look
and feel of a component is defined by the platform, not by Java. Because the AWT components
use native code resources, they are referred to as heavyweight.
The use of native peers led to several problems. First, because of variations between
operating systems, a component might look, or even act, differently on different platforms.
This potential variability threatened the overarching philosophy of Java: write once, run
anywhere. Second, the look and feel of each component was fixed (because it is defined by
the platform) and could not be (easily) changed. Third, the use of heavyweight components
caused some frustrating restrictions. For example, a heavyweight component is always
rectangular and opaque.
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