Still cannot see whats going on , trying to debug timer related problems was
never my strongest attribute.

Have tried stepping though (just get lost in nested calls etc), Adding
system.out debug (does what I expect, but child windws also jumps around) ,
have gone back to basic MDI/child with javax timer but still cannot past
this problem. Its going to be something simple but at this point time what?
while I continue to read up on timers / swing thread safety etc can someone
look at a cut down version of my app that I knocked up in eclipse VE and
give some more comments. dont know if it matters but Im runnin JDK 1.5 ,
eclipse 3.1 on and XP machine (but get the same problems with jdl  1.4.2 ,
eclipse 3.0 on NT4)

cheers

code made up from 2 files MDI.java and ChildWindow.java

MDI.java

import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Locale;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JMenuItem;
import javax.swing.JMenuBar;
import javax.swing.JMenu;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JLabel;
import javax.swing.Timer;

public class MDI extends JFrame implements ActionListener{

static final int ONE_SECOND=1000;
private JPanel jContentPane = null;
private JMenuBar jJMenuBar = null;
private JMenu fileMenu = null;
private JMenu launchMenu = null;
private JMenuItem exitMenuItem = null;
private JMenuItem childjMenuItem = null;
private JLabel lblTime = null;
private Timer statusTimer;

private JMenuItem getChildjMenuItem() {
 if (childjMenuItem == null) {
  childjMenuItem = new JMenuItem();
  childjMenuItem.setText("launch Child");
  childjMenuItem.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
   public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent e) {

    System.out.println("ActionEvent " + e);

    ChildWindow myChild=new ChildWindow();

    getContentPane().add(myChild);
   }
  });
 }
 return childjMenuItem;
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
       javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
           public void run() {
             System.out.println("Running my MDI");
               createAndShowGUI();
           }
       });
}

   private static void createAndShowGUI() {
    MDI myMDI = new MDI();
    myMDI.setVisible(true);
   }

public MDI() {
 super();
 initialize();
}

private void initialize() {
 this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
 this.setJMenuBar(getJJMenuBar());
 this.setSize(400, 200);
 this.setContentPane(getJContentPane());
 this.setTitle("Application");

 statusTimer=new Timer(ONE_SECOND * 3, this);
 statusTimer.start();
}

private JPanel getJContentPane() {
 if (jContentPane == null) {
  lblTime = new JLabel();
  lblTime.setText("Time");
  jContentPane = new JPanel();
  jContentPane.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
  jContentPane.add(lblTime, java.awt.BorderLayout.SOUTH);
 }
 return jContentPane;
}

private JMenuBar getJJMenuBar() {
 if (jJMenuBar == null) {
  jJMenuBar = new JMenuBar();
  jJMenuBar.add(getFileMenu());
  jJMenuBar.add(getEditMenu());
 }
 return jJMenuBar;
}

private JMenu getFileMenu() {
 if (fileMenu == null) {
  fileMenu = new JMenu();
  fileMenu.setText("File");
  fileMenu.add(getExitMenuItem());
 }
 return fileMenu;
}

private JMenu getEditMenu() {
 if (launchMenu == null) {
  launchMenu = new JMenu();
  launchMenu.setText("Launch");
  launchMenu.add(getChildjMenuItem());
 }
 return launchMenu;
}

private JMenuItem getExitMenuItem() {
 if (exitMenuItem == null) {
  exitMenuItem = new JMenuItem();
  exitMenuItem.setText("Exit");
  exitMenuItem.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
   public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
    System.exit(0);
   }
  });
 }
 return exitMenuItem;
}

public void actionPerformed (ActionEvent e) {
 System.out.println("actionPerformed for my clock:" + e);
     Date currentDate = new Date();
    final SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat ("EEE MMM dd
hh:mm:ss yyyy", Locale.getDefault());
     formatter.applyPattern("HH:mm:ss");
       String now = formatter.format(currentDate);
       lblTime.setText(now);
   }
}

Childwindow.java

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.JInternalFrame;
import javax.swing.JButton;

public class ChildWindow extends JInternalFrame {

private JPanel jContentPane = null;
private JButton btnClose = null;

public ChildWindow() {
 super();
 initialize();
}

private void initialize() {
 this.setSize(300, 100);
 this.setResizable(true);
 this.setMaximizable(true);
 this.setTitle("Drag me around");
 this.setVisible(true);
 this.setContentPane(getJContentPane());
}

private JPanel getJContentPane() {
 if (jContentPane == null) {
  jContentPane = new JPanel();
  jContentPane.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
  jContentPane.add(getBtnClose(), java.awt.BorderLayout.CENTER);
 }
 return jContentPane;
}

private JButton getBtnClose() {
 if (btnClose == null) {
  btnClose = new JButton();
  btnClose.setText("Close Me");
  btnClose.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
   public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent e) {
    dispose();
   }
  });
 }
 return btnClose;
}
}

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