ok im a bit tired so sorry if this makes even less sense. the aim is to make
a game similar to break out. i have an applet which implements Runnable,
then when its initialised (in init() ) has:

Thread pong = new Thread(this)
pong.start();

the applet uses double buffering, and i am using it as a thread so i can
control how often the screen is updated like this:

   public void run() {
       requestFocus();
       while (pong == Thread.currentThread() && currentLevel.play()) {
           repaint();
           try { Thread.sleep(19); } catch (InterruptedException e) {
System.out.println(e.getMessage()); }
       }
   }

if there is a better way of doing this (and there propably is) someone
please tell me. Ill note here that currentLevel.play() updates the position
of the balls on the screen etc and returns true if there are still balls in
play. And that i am also using a thread to control how often a games cycle
(recalculation of ball pos' etc) is. although im thinking of making the
level a thread itself and doing it that way (some one please tell me if this
is advisable)

So thats the background and the problem is that because im putting the
thread to sleep the keyDown function only detects a key when its awake (i
think) so the paddle jerks along slowly, rather than smoothly

Please note that this has been done on my own - and i have little experience
with OOP, so there is likely to be a lot of bad (ok terrible) design and i
would appreciate any advice / corrections / flaming :)

Linus