Articles : JavaBoutique's Introduction to Java :
Components :

Components

Most modern interfaces are built around the concept of "components" which are reusable widgets that perform some user-interface function. You should be extremely familiar with the ideas of components though if you have worked on any computers since the mid-80s. Common components include Buttons, Scroll Bars, Menu Bars, etc which are all basic to the GUIs you use every day.

The JDK comes with a fairly diverse set of components already built in which you can easily use by working with the online documentation.

These components all derive from the abstract base class java.awt.Component. By abstract, I mean that you would never instantiate a Component object. instead, you would extend the Component class in order to build a functional component. The Component class is more of a "generic" Component which contains al of the methods which all components should have.

Specifically, the Component class defines such things as alignment, background and foreground colors, fonts, size and positioning etc. You should consult the online documentation for the entire list of methods and fields however, we will try to demonstrate most of the important ones in the examples to follow.

Let's take a look at some of the most often used components provided by the JDK.

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Selena Sol contributes to the JavaBoutique's Introduction to Java. Selena currently works for Barclays Capital in London, one of the leading global investment banks in Europe and has worked as a software developer for the National Center for Human Genome research, Microline Software, Neuron Data, and Electric Eye in Singapore. Selena is perhaps best-known for creating the Public Domain Web Script Archive (Extropia) and writing several books on Web Programming (Perl, CGI, Java).
Email: selena@extropia.com

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