Java Reference
In-Depth Information
code in this topic is not optimized for speed, by the way. I just show you the basics. To teach you
everything about Swing, I'd have to write another (very likely larger) book.
A Basic Swing Application
Swing applications follow a fairly common flow. First, we create a
JFrame
object. The
JFrame
object is the
main window and holds all the other interface components (buttons, text fields, and so on).
So, let's write a Swing application. The
JFrame
class lets you create a window, put other components
in that window, and associate other windows with the first window. Consequently, creating a
JFrame
object is often the first step to creating a Swing application. As usual in software development, other
ways exist, but we follow one common path, as shown in Listing 7-1.
Listing 7-1. The simplest possible Swing application
package com.apress.java7forabsolutebeginners.examples.swingdemo;
import java.awt.Dimension;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
public class SwingDemo {
private JFrame frame = new JFrame("SwingDemo");
private void createAndShowGUI() {
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(200, 200));
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
SwingDemo swingDemo = new SwingDemo();
swingDemo.createAndShowGUI();
}
}
Before we go any further, Figure 7-1 shows our simple application.
