Gotchas

Container pane = swingContainer.getContentPane();

In Swing, override JComponent.paintComponent instead of paint.

Swing’s JComboBox is misnamed. It does not let you select a combination of choices. It is a combination Choice and write-in TextField allowing the user to add new possible choices on the fly. Swing classes live in package javax.swing.* . They used to live in com.sun.java.swing.*.

FormattedTextField does not verify input the way you might expect. To learn how to do that you need to read up on

The good news is, even though you are using Runnable, you don’t have the overhead of actually creating a new Thread since you are just calling the run method on the already existing Swing Thread.

You are not on the Swing event thread when main first starts up! You are on it in your event listeners. You are tell if you are on it with:

// Either method will work in
    Java 1.3+
// to determine if you are running on the
dispatch thread,
// the same for AWT or Swing.

// in Swing
boolean onSwingThread 
= javax.
swing.SwingUtilities.
isEventDispatchThread();

// in AWT
boolean onDispatchThread 
= java.
awt.EventQueue.
isDispatchThread();

// Dump info about the current thread, name,
priority, group.
System.
out.println
( Thread.
currentThread() 
);

// Dump name of the current thread
System.
out.println
( Thread.
currentThread().
getName() 
);

One of the most common errors is to tie up the AWT/Swing event thread with some long running computation or even a sleep. Everything freezes up. The GUI can’t respond to mouse clicks and no repainting happens. You have to spin the time-consuming task off on its own thread or use a Timer.

If you violate these rules, the entire system starts to behave unpredicably and irrationally. If by violating these rules, you manage to create two event-processing threads, life gets really interesting as they unpredictably fight with each other handling Swing events.

AWT vs 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 L&Fs (look & feels) 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. Though JDK 1.6 is more forgiving, your apps will fail on older JDKs.
• Swing has JSpinner, JSlider and JColorChooser. There are no equivalents in AWT.

Difference Between Window Types

When the following table suggests a Component is for AWT but not Swing, it means there is an improved Swing component. In theory you could use the old AWT component, but normally you would not want to.

When it asks if Components are visible, it means, are the visible by default when first created. Obviously you set do a setVisible( true ) later. The rule of thumb is, freestanding windows start out invisible and everything else starts out visible. Another way of looking at it is, everything derived from Window starts out invisible.

The paned refers to whether you use getContentPane.setLayout or simply setLayout.

For a great overview what is possible with Swing, see the SwingSet2 demo that comes part of the JDK download. Run it with this command:

cd J:\Program Files\java\jdk1.6.0_06\demo\jfc\swingset2]
java -jar Swingset2.jar

Books

	recommend book⇒Java Swing
		paperback
	ISBN10:	1-56592-455-X
	ISBN13:	978-1-56592-455-0
	publisher:	O’Reilly
	published:	1998-09-01
	by:	Robert Eckstein, Marc Loy and Dave Wood
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de O’Reilly Safari amazon.co.uk

	recommend book⇒John Zukowski’s Definitive Guide to Swing for Java 2 with CD-ROM
		paperback
	ISBN10:	1-893115-02-X
	ISBN13:	978-1-893115-02-6
	publisher:	Apress
	published:	1999-06-15
	by:	John Zukowski
very clear writer
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de amazon.co.uk

	recommend book⇒Core Swing Advanced Programming
		paperback
	ISBN10:	0-13-083292-8
	ISBN13:	978-0-13-083292-4
	publisher:	Pearson Education
	published:	1999-12-20
	by:	Kim Topley
On reading the Amazon reviews, this book looks best for HTML rendering.
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de amazon.co.uk

	recommend book⇒Swing, Second Edition
		paperback
	ISBN10:	1-930110-88-X
	ISBN13:	978-1-930110-88-5
	publisher:	Manning Publications
	published:	2003-02
	by:	Matthew Robinson, Pavel Vorobiev, David Anderson
A relatively deep book. Also covers printing.
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de amazon.co.uk

	recommend book⇒Swing Hacks: Tips and Tools for Killer GUIs
	ISBN10:	0-596-00907-0
	ISBN13:	978-0-596-00907-6
	publisher:	O’Reilly
	published:	2005-06-01
	by:	Joshua Marinacci & Chris Adamson
Weird, fun, tricky, non-obvious things you can do with Swing.
amazon.ca amazon.com chapters.indigo.ca powells.com amazon.fr barnesandnoble.com amazon.de O’Reilly Safari amazon.co.uk

Learning Even More

• William Wake/Steven Drye Swing FAQ.
• Richard Baldwin’s Tutorials.
• CodeGuru.