See http://mindprod.com/jgloss/event11.html

There is a complicated system by which various layers of container and
component see events and decide who sees what.

The usual process is for a container to field a mouse event and then
decide which of its component's it belongs to then dispatch it to that
Component.  Some components such as JButtons convert low level events
such as MouseClicks into ActionEvents, so you don't see the individual
MouseClicks at the application level.

It has been a while since I wrote that essay, so it is not as clear as
it once was.  The best way to make sense of it is to use a tool that
lets you navigate Sun's AWT code, so you can figure out what each of
the methods do.  You can also read my notes on each method in the Java
glossary such as http://mindprod.com/jgloss/validate.html

--
Canadian Mind Products, Roedy Green.
Coaching, problem solving, economical contract programming.
See http://mindprod.com/jgloss/jgloss.html for The Java Glossary.