Using Components, the GUI Building Blocks
This lesson describes every component the AWT offers, including the
Canvas class, which you can use to build your own custom
components. This lesson also describes the AWT component
architecture and has details on writing event handlers.
Note:
We recommend that instead of using AWT components such as
Button and Canvas,
you use Swing components
such as JButton and JComponent.
The Swing components, which are part of the
Java Foundation Classes (JFC),
can be used with either JDK 1.1 or JDK 1.2.
See
Using the JFC/Swing Packages
for details.
Start here to learn the general rules of using components,
as well as details on
how to use every component the AWT provides.
Note:
The text and the code snippets in this section reflect 1.0,
unless otherwise noted.
However, each page that features an example
has links to both 1.0 and 1.1 versions of the example.
Remember: 1.0 code runs in 1.1 environments,
but it often results in warnings when compiled in 1.1,
due to its use of deprecated API.
See
To 1.1 -- And Beyond!
for information
about deprecation and about
differences between 1.0 and 1.1 programs.
This section gives an overview of and
general tips on writing event handlers.
It then goes on to give details about
each kind of event handler you might need to implement.
Note:
The text and the code snippets in this section reflect 1.1.
This section tells you about peers. A peer
is an object that provides the look (and part of the feel) for standard
components. You usually don't need to know about peer objects, since they're
specific to platform implementations. However, sometimes knowing about peers
can help you find bugs in event-handling, drawing, or layout code.
This section discusses solutions to common component-related problems.
