AWT : Java Glossary

AWT

AWT (Advanced Windowing Toolkit) or AWT (Abstract Windowing Toolkit). Unix people will tell you it means AWT (Another Windowing Toolkit). It is a set of classes that let you write platform independent Java code that will hook into the native GUI (Graphic User Interface) systems on many different platforms.

AWT vs Swing

Which should you use, AWT or Swing?

AWT use native heavyweight OS peer components. Swing draws all its own lightweight components at the bit level, and analyses all its own mouse events to figure out which component they belong to. This means AWT is usually slightly faster, though with modern hardware, you probably won’t notice the difference. AWT applications will look like native apps. AWT applications will look different on different platforms. In contrast, Swing apps will look the same on all platforms.
The main advantage of Swing is it gives you finer control over the look and feel of your components. You can configure LAF (Look And Feel)s or compose your own custom one. You can create a prettier app. They look the same on all platforms. AWT apps tend to look amateurish and Spartan.
AWT supports Ctrl-C Ctrl-V copy/paste without any coding. In Swing, it requires page and pages of bubblegum. Further you can’t do it at all in unsigned Swing JApplets. In the more recent versions, this is improved.
Swing is bigger and more complicated, and is not supported by earlier JVMs.
With Swing you must deal with the infuriatingly pointless complexity of ContentPanes. ThoughJava version 1.6 is more forgiving, your apps will fail on older JDKs.
Swing has JSpinner, JSlider and JColorChooser. There are no equivalents in AWT.

Roughly Equivalent Components in AWT and Swing
AWT	Swing	Purpose
Applet	JApplet	Run inside a browser.
none	Border	decorate with a fancy edge.
Button	JButton	User clicks button to make something happen.
Canvas	JPanel or JLayeredPane	Place to roll your own low-level drawing
Checkbox	JCheckBox (checked) or JRadioButton (round) or JToggleButton (full button)	Checkbox is a small box, the user can tick or not to indicate a desired option. A RadioButton displays as a round button. JToggleButton displays as a rectangular button, usually with a custom icon. By default, the background changes colour slightly when selected. You can use these in isolation, or in clusters controlled by a CheckboxGroup or ButtonGroup.
CheckboxGroup	ButtonGroup	Used in conjunction with Checkbox, JCheckBox, JRadioButton and JToggleButton to allow only on of group of options to be selected.
Choice	JComboBox	Allows user to pick one from a drop-down menu of choices. JComboBox has a write-in feature. Ironically, JComboxBox does not support combinations of choices. For that you need a List of JList.
Color	Color	Describes a colour with 8 bits each of red, green, blue and transparency.
none	JColorChooser	Let’s user choose a colour from a palette, or numerically, but not using hex.
Component	JComponent	Used to roll your own widgets.
Container	Container	Used to manage the Chinese boxes of panels within panels.
Dialog	JDialog or JOptionPane	Pop up a box to ask the user a question. JOptionPane is a simplified JDialog to handle common cases.
FileDialog	JFileChooser	Let the user select a directory or file from a tree.
none	JFormattedTextField	Let the user key in a field where certain characters must be alphabetic or numeric.
Frame	JFrame or JInternalFrame	Normal top level moveable window with widgets on it for minimize and close.
Label	JLabel	Used to label fields. Displays text. User cannot type into it. It tends to blend into the background.
List	JList + JScrollPane	JList lets the user make a selection, or many selections from a presented list which is always expanded. For long lists, you scroll.
LayoutManager	LayoutManager	Lets you design your layouts so they automatically reflow with different amounts of screen real estate, different text, difference translations, different available fonts etc.
Menu with MenuBar and MenuItem	JMenu with JMenuBar, JMenuItem, JRadioButtonMenuItem and JPopupMenu	Drop down menus to select functions to perform. JRadioButtonMenuItem allows toggling option selections in the menus. JPopupMenu lets the user pop up a menu when she right clicks a component.
Panel	JPanel or JToolBar or JSplitPane or JTabbedPane, or JLayeredPane.	Panels collect components together into rectangles to simplify layout and enable encapsulation. A panel can be treated like an atomic component for most purposes. JToolBar is just a panel specialised for holding a row of buttons. JSplitPane is a split panel where the user can move the divide. JTabbedPane lets you cram many panels in small space. The user selects a tab, much as on a file folder, to bring one of them into full view. JLayeredPane is an advanced feature for composing transparent overlays, e.g. sprites.
none	JPasswordField	For entering passwords.
ScrollPane	JScrollPane	For scrolling a panel where there is not enough room to see it all at once.
none	JSeparator	A decorative horizontal or vertical line. Note the spelling: JSeparat or.
none	JSlider	The user uses the mouse to move an analog slider to select a value.
none	JSpinner	The user uses arrow keys or a mouse to select a value by making it go higher or lower.
TextArea	JTextArea or JEditorPane or JTextPane	TextArea and JTextArea allow multi-line text display, and data entry. JEditorPane allows display of formatted HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) or RTF (Rich Text Format) with colours and fonts whereas JTextPane is like JEditorPane with the additional ability to edit styles and character attributes.
TextField	JTextField	Allow display or entering of one line of unformatted text. They always have a box around the text unlike labels which blend into the background. For more than one line see TextArea and JTextArea.
none	JTable
none	JTree	Displaying and editing tree-structured data.
Window	JWindow	Like a frame without the top bar widgets.

Learning More

Oracle’s Technote Guide on AWT : available:

on the web at Oracle.com
in the current JDK 1.7.0_02 on your local Windows J: drive.

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