I just find if I have to do something in Perl, I can do it 5x faster than in
Java.  Sometimes I feel like Java was made by the Spaceballs.  Remember the
scene where Col. Saunders issues a lot of "Prepare for..." commands
followed by telling people to do what he just told them to prepare?  Then
Dark Helmet says, "Why do you have to prepare for everything?  Why not just
do it?"  I feel like in Java I spend 2-3 lines preparing to do something
that takes one line.

As for this particular case, if you can tell me how the user can click on a
cancel button (just a JButton) in a window that can't take focus AND have
that JButton call its ActionListener, I'm open to it, but I experimented
and had to have the window focusable for a JButton in it to receive a
click.

Hal

Huh, well in my test it didn't.  I'm on Windows though, so maybe other
OSs work differently.  Can you try it on Windows?  I'm curious now if
it's the code you have or a difference in OS.

This quick and dirty, but it does it.  Quick and dirty in the generated
by a GUI tool and I didn't clean it up.  Three files, three classes,
snip on the <<<<<'s.

package windowtest;

public class Main {

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // TODO code application logic here
        MainFrame.main( args );
    }

}

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

package windowtest;

public class MainFrame extends javax.swing.JFrame {

    /** Creates new form MainFrame */
    public MainFrame() {
        initComponents();
        setSize( 200, 200 );
        setLocationRelativeTo( null );
    }

    /** This method is called from within the constructor to
     * initialize the form.
     * WARNING: Do NOT modify this code. The content of this method is
     * always regenerated by the Form Editor.
     */
    // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Generated Code">
    private void initComponents() {

        jButton1 = new javax.swing.JButton();


setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        jButton1.setText("Make New Nonfocusable Frame");
        jButton1.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                jButton1ActionPerformed(evt);
            }
        });

        javax.swing.GroupLayout layout = new
javax.swing.GroupLayout(getContentPane());
        getContentPane().setLayout(layout);
        layout.setHorizontalGroup(

layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addGap(90, 90, 90)
                .addComponent(jButton1)
                .addContainerGap(97, Short.MAX_VALUE))
        );
        layout.setVerticalGroup(

layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addGap(134, 134, 134)
                .addComponent(jButton1)
                .addContainerGap(141, Short.MAX_VALUE))
        );

        pack();
    }// </editor-fold>

    private void jButton1ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
        // TODO add your handling code here:
        new NFW().setVisible(true);
    }

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                new MainFrame().setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }

    // Variables declaration - do not modify
    private javax.swing.JButton jButton1;
    // End of variables declaration

}

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

package windowtest;

public class NFW extends javax.swing.JFrame {

    /** Creates new form NFW */
    public NFW() {
        initComponents();
        setSize( 200 , 200 );
        setLocationRelativeTo( null );
        setFocusableWindowState(false);
    }

    /** This method is called from within the constructor to
     * initialize the form.
     * WARNING: Do NOT modify this code. The content of this method is
     * always regenerated by the Form Editor.
     */
    // <editor-fold defaultstate="collapsed" desc="Generated Code">
    private void initComponents() {

        jButton1 = new javax.swing.JButton();


setDefaultCloseOperation(javax.swing.WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        jButton1.setText("Cancel");
        jButton1.addActionListener(new java.awt.event.ActionListener() {
            public void actionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
                jButton1ActionPerformed(evt);
            }
        });

        javax.swing.GroupLayout layout = new
javax.swing.GroupLayout(getContentPane());
        getContentPane().setLayout(layout);
        layout.setHorizontalGroup(

layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addGap(151, 151, 151)
                .addComponent(jButton1)
                .addContainerGap(178, Short.MAX_VALUE))
        );
        layout.setVerticalGroup(

layout.createParallelGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.LEADING)
            .addGroup(javax.swing.GroupLayout.Alignment.TRAILING,
layout.createSequentialGroup()
                .addContainerGap(145, Short.MAX_VALUE)
                .addComponent(jButton1)
                .addGap(130, 130, 130))
        );

        pack();
    }// </editor-fold>

    private void jButton1ActionPerformed(java.awt.event.ActionEvent evt) {
        // TODO add your handling code here:
        this.dispose();
    }

    /**
     * @param args the command line arguments
     */
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        java.awt.EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                new NFW().setVisible(true);
            }
        });
    }

    // Variables declaration - do not modify
    private javax.swing.JButton jButton1;
    // End of variables declaration

}