Killer Ap version 0.00002 seems to be avoiding the setBackground method
in JFrame,
I'd like to fix this - but more importantly, to understand *why* it
doesn't work. I suspect there's something fairly fundamental I've not
understood.

I have a class that extends JFrame, I use the class in an application
(does just the same in an applet though) and everything works as
advertised except that the background colour (OK, color) remains the
default pale grey (gray) *except that* (and this may be a clue) the red
background seems to flash on as the frame loads to the screen and if I
click and drag to resize, the red background is there in the newly
revealed screen area (but still not the original) until I release the
mouse button. setSize, setVisible, setDefaultCloseOperation work (I've
changed/removed them and put them back in to satisfy myself on this).

Why is setBackground different please?

I've chopped the code down to the bare (bear?) minimum below. I'm
running java version 1.5.0_06 under Windows XP and use a text-editor
and command-line for compile/execute.

All contributions gratefully received,

Pete

Code is:

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

public class BasicFrame extends JFrame
{
    public BasicFrame()
    {
        super(" Test Frame");
        setSize(100,600);
        setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setBackground(Color.RED);
        setVisible(true);

    }    //  end cons()

}    // end class BasicFrame

public class TestHarness
{
    BasicFrame frame = new BasicFrame();

    public static void main(String[] arguments)
    {
        TestHarness harness = new TestHarness();
       
    }    // end main
}    // end TestHarness