Drawing in a Window - Beginning Java - page 1002

you like. You can remove all the segments in a path by calling the reset() method for the GeneralPath
object. This empties the path.
The GeneralPath class implements the Shape interface, so a Graphics2D object knows how to draw a
path. You just pass a reference to a GeneralPath object as the argument to the draw() method for the graph-
ics context. To draw the path, p , that was defined in the preceding example in the graphics context g2D , you
would write the following:
g2D.draw(p); // Draw path p
Let's try an example.
TRY IT OUT: Reaching for the Stars
You won't usually want to construct a GeneralPath object as I did in the preceding example. You prob-
ably want to create a particular shape — a triangle or a star, say — and then draw it at various points
on a component. You might think you can do this by subclassing GeneralPath , but the GeneralPath
class is declared as final so subclassing is not allowed. However, you can always add a GeneralPath
object as a member of your class. You can try drawing some stars using your own Star class. You'll use
a GeneralPath object to create the star shown in Figure 19-17 .
FIGURE 19-17
Here's the code for a class that can create a path for a star:
import java.awt.geom.*;
public class Star {
// Return a path for a star at x,y
public static GeneralPath starAt(float x, float y) {