Java Swing - Softcover

Robert Eckstein; Marc Loy; Dave Wood; Wood, Dave

Softcover

ISBN 10: 156592455X ISBN 13: 9781565924550

Publisher: O′Reilly, 1998

Synopsis

The Swing classes eliminate Java's biggest weakness: its relatively primitive user interface toolkit. Swing provides many new components and containers that allow you to build sophisticated user interfaces, far beyond what was possible with AWT. The old components have been greatly improved, and there are many new components, like trees, tables, and even text editors. It also adds several completely new features to Java's user interface capabilities: drag-and-drop, undo, and the ability to develop your own "look and feel," or the ability to choose between several standard looks. The Swing components are all "lightweight," and therefore provide more uniform behavior across platforms, making it easier to test your software. All these new features mean that there's a lot to learn. Swing is undoubtedly way ahead of AWT -- or, for that matter, any widely available user interface toolkit -- but it's also a lot more complicated. It's still easy to do simple things. But once you've seen what's possible, you won't want to do the simple things. Java Swing gives you in-depth coverage of everything you need to know to take full advantage of Swing, providing detailed descriptions of every class and interface in the key Swing packages. It shows you how to use all of the new components, allowing you to build state-of-the-art user interfaces. It also discusses how the components implement the MVC (Model View Controller) architecture, so you can understand how the components are designed and subclass them intelligently. Finally, it shows how to create your own "look and feel." Throughout, Java Swing focuses on giving you the context you need to understand what you're doing. It's more than documentation; Java Swing helps you develop code quickly and effectively. Whether you're a serious Java developer, or just trying to find out what Java can do, you'll find Java Swing an indispensable guide.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Eckstein enjoys dabbling with just about anything related to computers. From rendering to electronic commerce to compiler construction to fuzzy logic, most of his friends agree that Robert spends far too much time in front of a computer screen. Unknowingly dubbed "JavaBob" by his managers, Robert strives to learn as much about Java as possible. This unwittingly makes him the world's largest consumer of caffeine. He is currently working on a book about Java Commerce for O'Reilly, and in his spare time he has been known to provide online coverage for popular conferences. He also writes articles for JavaWorld magazine. Robert holds bachelor's degrees in computer science and communications from Trinity University. In the past, he has worked for the USAA insurance company and more recently spent four years with Motorola's cellular software division. He now lives in Austin, Texas, with his newlywed Michelle -- they both hope to adopt a talking puppy soon. Marc Loy is a senior programmer at Galileo Systems, LLC, but his day job seems to be teaching Java and Perl to various companies -- including Sun Microsystems. He has played with Java since the alpha days and can't find his way back to C. He is developing an interactive learning application at Galileo written entirely in Java. He received his master's degree in computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and still lives in Madison with his partner, Ron Becker. He does find time to relax by playing the piano and/or throwing darts, depending on how successful the day of teaching or programming was. Dave Wood is a Java architect with the Sun Java Center in Denver, Colorado, where he has helped design and implement Java solutions for customers around the world. His B.S. and M.S. degrees are in computer science from the University of Colorado. He has been involved in object-oriented design and development his entire career, and has been obsessed with Java since its early days. When he's not in front of a keyboard, Dave enjoys taking advantage of the beautiful Colorado scenery by camping, kayaking (just lakes...not whitewater), or hiking the Colorado 14ers (the 54 mountains over 14,000 feet, for all you flatlanders). He also enjoys playing chess and spending time with his wife, Shannon (the "real" architect of the family), and two cats, Pussin and Toast.

From the Back Cover

Swing, the centerpiece of the JFC (Java Foundation Classes), eliminates Java's biggest weakness: its relatively primitive user interface tool kit. Swing provides many new components that allow you to build sophisticated user interfaces easily. The old components have been greatly improved, and there are added components such as internal frames, trees, tables, and text editors. These Swing components provide more uniform cross-platform behavior than the older AWT components, bringing the goal of 'write once, run anywhere' closer to reality.

All these new features mean that there's a lot to learn. Swing is undoubtedly way ahead of AWT - or, for that matter, any widely available user interface toolkit - but it's also a lot more complicated. It's still easy to do simple things, but once you've seen what's possible, you won't want to limit yourself to doing simple things.

Java Swing gives you in-depth coverage of everything you need to know to take full advantage of Swing. It covers Swing 1.1, for use with both JDK 1.2 and 1.1, providing detailed descriptions of every class and interface in the key Swing packages. It shows you how to use all of the new components, allowing you to build state-of-the-art user interfaces. It also discusses how the components implement the MVC (Model View Controller) architecture, so you can understand how the components are designed, subclass them intelligently, and design your own when necessary. You'll find many substantive examples that you can put to use right away, such as a styled text editor and a paged table that can support thousands of rows efficiently. Finally, it covers advanced features, like creating your own 'look and feel' and using the accessibility API. Throughout, Java Swing focuses on giving you the context you need to know to understand what you're doing. It's more than documentation; Java Swing is full of examples and detailed explanations that help you develop code quickly and efectively.

Whether you're a serious Java developer, or just trying to find out what Java can do, you'll find Java Swing an indispensable guide.

Edition details

• Publisher: O′Reilly
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 156592455X
• ISBN 13: 9781565924550
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1232