I'm having some problems with a start up/splash window (see example
below).
I ant to use a border less window, therefore I'M not using JFrame for
that. With Jframe it works perfectly.

Questions:
1. how can I get rid of the flickering? setting setVisible at #2
instead of #1 will work, but then the user won't be able to see the
textoutput under the build up, hence not an option.

2. is there a way to get the desktopPane.getBounds().height at #3 if
setVisible
hasn't been run yet? (in such case it returns 0)

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.*;

public class Test extends JFrame
{
 static JFrame frm=null, frm1=null;
 static JWindow win=null;
 static JDesktopPane  desktopPane = new JDesktopPane();
 static JProgressBar pBar= new JProgressBar();
 static JLabel text = new JLabel("             ");
 static JTextArea ta = new JTextArea();

 public static void main(String args[])
 {
  win = startUp();
  sleepThread(500);
  update("Building Desktop Pane...",1);
  frm1 = new Test();
  frm.setVisible(true);  //#1
  sleepThread(200);
  update("Building Internal Frame 1 ...",2);
  sleepThread(200);
  JInternalFrame j1 = createInternalFrame1();
  j1.setVisible(true); //#1
  sleepThread(200);
  update("Building Internal Frame 2 ...",3);
  sleepThread(200);
  JInternalFrame j2 = createInternalFrame2();
  j2.setVisible(true); //#1
  sleepThread(200);
  update("Do some configuration...",4);
  for(int i=0; i<20;i++)
    ta.append("adjg"+ i + "rehgkjh\n");
  sleepThread(1000);
 
  //#2
  //frm.setVisible(true);  
  //j1.setVisible(true);
  //j2.setVisible(true);

  update("Startup finished ...",3);
  closeStartup();
 
  sleepThread(5000);
  closeStartup();
  System.exit(0);
 }//main

 public static JWindow startUp()
 {
  JWindow window = new JWindow();
  JPanel panel = new JPanel();
  panel.setLayout(null);

  JLabel lab[] = new JLabel [3];
  lab[0] = new JLabel("Some");
  lab[1] = new JLabel("start up");
  lab[2] = new JLabel("Text");

  int row=10;
  for(int i=0;i<3;i++)
  {
   panel.add(lab[i]);
   lab[i].setSize( lab[i].getPreferredSize() );  
   lab[i].setLocation( 10,row);
   row = row + lab[i].getHeight()+2;
  }
  row = row +10;

  panel.add(text);
  text.setLocation( 10, row );
  text.setSize( text.getPreferredSize() );
  row = row + text.getHeight()+7;

  pBar.setForeground(Color.blue);
  pBar.setBorderPainted(false);
  pBar.setValue(0);
  pBar.setStringPainted(true);      
  panel.add(pBar);
  pBar.setLocation( 10, row );
  pBar.setSize( pBar.getPreferredSize() );
  row=row+pBar.getHeight();

  window.getContentPane().add(panel);
  window.pack();
  panel.setSize(200,row+10);
  window.setSize(200,row+10);
  Dimension screenDim = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
  Rectangle frameDim = window.getBounds();
  window.setLocation((screenDim.width - frameDim.width) / 2,
                  (screenDim.height - frameDim.height) / 2);
  window.show();
  window.toFront();  
  window.setVisible(true);
  return window;
 }//startUp

 public static void update(String str, int n)
 {  
  int p = 100 / 10 * n;
  if(win!=null)
  {
   text.setText( str );
   text.setSize( text.getPreferredSize() );
   pBar.setValue(p);
   pBar.setSize( pBar.getPreferredSize() );
   win.toFront();
   sleepThread(3);
  }
 }//pbupdate

 public static void closeStartup()
 {
  if(win!=null)
  {
   win.setVisible(false);
   win.dispose();
   win=null;
  }
 }//closeStartup

 public Test()
 {
  JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar();
  JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu( "File");
  menubar.add(fileMenu);

  frm = new JFrame("Test");
  Container contentPane = frm.getContentPane();  
  frm.setJMenuBar( menubar );
  contentPane.setLayout(new BorderLayout() );
  contentPane.add(desktopPane, BorderLayout.CENTER);
  Dimension screenDim = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
  frm.setBounds(10,10,300,400);
  frm.setLocation((screenDim.width - 300) / 2, (screenDim.height -
400) / 2);
  frm.setDefaultCloseOperation(DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE);
 }//Test

 public static JInternalFrame createInternalFrame1()
 {  
   JInternalFrame jif = new JInternalFrame( "JIF1", false, false,
false, false );
   //int h = desktopPane.getBounds().height;  //#3
   int h=200;
   jif.setBounds(0, 0, 100, h-20);
   Container jifcp = jif.getContentPane();  
   jifcp.add(new JScrollPane(ta),BorderLayout.CENTER);
   //jif.setVisible(true);
   desktopPane.add(jif);
   return jif;
 }//createInternalFrame

 public static JInternalFrame createInternalFrame2()
 {  
   JInternalFrame jif = new JInternalFrame( "JIF2", false, false,
false, false );
   jif.setBounds(110, 0, 150, 200);
   Container jifcp = jif.getContentPane();  
   jifcp.add(new JTree(),BorderLayout.CENTER);
   jif.setVisible(true);
   desktopPane.add(jif);
   return jif;
 }//createInternalFrame

 static void sleepThread(int mili)
 {
   Thread ct = Thread.currentThread();
   try
   { ct.sleep(mili); }
   catch(IllegalArgumentException e){}
   catch(InterruptedException e){}
 }// end sleepThread

}//class Test