Swing: Part I, About This Short Course

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Fundamentals of JFC/Swing: Part I
About This Short Course

By MageLang Institute

[Short Course | Magercises]

The Java™ Developer Connection™ (JDC) presents a Short Course on the Fundamentals of Java™ Foundation Classes (JFC)/Swing written by Java Software licensee, the MageLang Institute. A leading provider of Java™ technology training, MageLang has contributed regularly to the JDC since 1996.

The MageLang Institute, since its founding in 1995, has been dedicated to promoting the growth of the Java technology community by providing excellent education and acting as an independent resource. To find out more about MageLang's Java technology training, visit the MageLang web site. (Be sure to set a bookmark before clicking on this link to make it easy to return to this short course.)

The goal of this two-part course is to help you understand Swing and the advantages it gives you over the Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) used in JDK™ 1.1. You will learn about other upgraded capabilities, including Swing controls, layout managers, and events, as well as new capabilities not readily available in AWT.

This is Part I of a two-part course on the Fundamentals of JFC/Swing. Part I provides a general introduction to Swing. After you complete it, you will be able to use the Swing component set anywhere you previously used AWT components.

Part II will include information on using Swing's Pluggable Look & Feel and Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture. In the MVC discussion, you will learn to use the more advanced Swing controls. You will also learn the advantages of designing your user interfaces with the MVC model. Part II will be posted shortly.

Prerequisites

A general familiarity with the AWT and the delegation event model is assumed. If you are not familiar with these capabilities, see The Java™ Tutorial section on "Event Handling."

These course notes and exercises require a JDK™ 1.1.5 or higher environment.

About the Authors

John Zukowski is a Software Mage with MageLang Institute. He is the author of John Zukowski's Definitive Guide to Swing for Java 2, Mastering Java 2, Java AWT Reference, and Borland JBuilder: No experience required. John also serves as the Focus on Java guide at the Mining Co.

Scott Stanchfield is a Software Mage with MageLang Institute. He recently developed and is teaching courses on porting OS/2 applications to Java and advanced features of VisualAge for Java. He is the maintainer of the VisualAge for Java Tips and Tricks resource.

NOTE:
Do you have questions about this short course? Why not ask the author directly?
John Zukowski of the MageLang Institute will be holding Office Hours, live and on-line on Thursdays, March 18 and 25, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon, P.S.T.

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