Java Swing for Not Yet Techies

Java Swing in its essence is a user interface development kit for Java. Java Swing contains a large number of graphic components for creating the GUI programs which we PC owners are used to having, and this enables and encourages the use of it for creating software programs for large enterprises, whose employees would rebel if forced to use the DOS prompt.

When Sun Microsystems first unleashed Java on the world in 1995, everybody got excited about the potential benefits of a cross-platform language. However, since Sun had originally created Java to work as an embedded language in small appliances, they didn't have a full set of developer tools. Java Swing was a step toward fixing that problem.

In April 1997, Sun's Java group announced the released of the Java Foundation Classes (JFC) -- which included the Abstract Windows Toolkit (AWT), a software development "toolkit" for creating Windows programs using it. This included a much improved user interface -- Java Swing. It is one of five libraries in the JFC.

However, Java Swing is written in Java and includes its own components, improving its own portability. It includes such lightweight components as: tree components, tables, tabbed dialog boxes, tooltips and more - that are independent of the operating system of the computer the program is running on.

Using it, you can choose for your program a pre-built Look and Feel (L&F) or you can design your own. It has a full selection of Pluggable Look and Feels (PLAFs), which you can just "plug in" to your application. This would help ordinary users feel comfortable with your program, because it looks like other Windows programs that they have used.

Java Swing builds on the event model introduced in the JDK 1.1 series - "event subscriber" design instead of "chain" design. Therefore, it now requires at least JDK 1.1.5 to run.

Java Swing uses the model-delegate architecture behind its components, a simpler version of the model-view-controller architecture (MVC) as its fundamental design behind arguments.

This model breaks GUIs into three elements:

1. Model
2. View
3. Controller

This introduces Java Swing.

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