David,
As to your new adventure, absorb all that you can of the abstract nature
of the computer science field. Do not EVER, NOT QUESTION anything you
will bump into, on your path. Have a very open mind and enthusiasm of
curiosity of say  Richard Feynman. If you do not know who he is then do
some research.  You would be best to listen to his Caltech Physics
lectures or any video of him presenting any topic. At least hear him
converse. He died sometime ago but for myself I pride myself to have a
tenth of the curiosity that he had. So lots of luck to you.

As far as the best newsgroups  here is information about the Java NG's
here. After that "comp.lang.java.gui FAQ". Finely "Places you MUST see
as a Beginner".

*comp.lang.java.{help,programmer} - what they're for (mini-FAQ 2004-10-08)*

 Before posting read Jon Skeet's "How to get answers on the
comp.lang.java.*
 newsgroups" at http://www.pobox.com/~skeet/java/newsgroups.html

 Java FAQs and advice:
 - Java FAQ (Andrew Thompson)  http://www.physci.org/codes/javafaq.jsp
   including his list of other FAQs
http://www.physci.org/codes/javafaq.jsp#faq
 - Java/Javascript/Powerbuilder HOWTO (Real Gagnon)
   http://www.rgagnon.com/howto.html
 - Java Glossary (Roedy Green)  http://www.mindprod.com/jgloss.html
 - jGuru jFAQs (John Zukowski)    http://www.jguru.com/jguru/faq/
 - Focus on Java (John Zukowski)   http://java.about.com/
 - Java Q&A (David Reilly)  http://www.davidreilly.com/jcb/faq/
 - Java GUI FAQ (Thomas Weidenfeller) http://www.physci.org/guifaq.jsp

 comp.lang.java.help     Set-up problems, catch-all first aid.
     According to its charter, this unmoderated group is for immediate help
     on any Java problem, especially when the source of the difficulty is
     hard to pin down in terms of topics treated on other groups.
         This is the appropriate group for end-users, programmers and
     administrators who are having difficulty installing a system
capable of
     running Java applets or programs.  It is also the right group for
     people trying to check their understanding of something in the
     language, or to troubleshoot something simple.

 comp.lang.java.programmer  Programming in the Java language.
     An unmoderated group for discussion of Java as a programming language.
     Specific example topics may include:
       o types, classes, interfaces, and other language concepts
       o the syntax and grammar of Java
       o threaded programming in Java - sychronisation, monitors, etc.
       o possible language extensions (as opposed to API extensions).
     The original charter said that discussion explicitly should not
include
     API features that are not built into the Java language and gave
examples
     like networking and the AWT.  These days AWT belongs in clj.gui, and
     networking (and many other APIs) are often discussed in
clj.programmer.

 Do not post binary classfiles or long source listings on any of these
 groups. Instead, the post should reference a WWW or FTP site (short source
 snippets to demonstrate a particular point or problem are fine).  For some
 problems you might consider posting a SSCCE (Short, Self Contained,
Correct
 (Compilable), Example); see http://www.physci.org/codes/sscce.jsp

 Don't post on topics that have their own groups, such as:
  comp.lang.java.3d        The Java 3D API
  comp.lang.java.advocacy  Arguments about X versus Y, for various Java
X and Y
  comp.lang.java.beans     JavaBeans and similar component frameworks
  comp.lang.java.corba      Common Object Request Broker Architecture
and Java
  comp.lang.java.databases Using databases from Java
  comp.lang.java.gui       Java graphical user interface design and
construction
  comp.lang.java.machine   Java virtual machines, like JVM and KVM
  comp.lang.java.security  Using Java securely
  comp.lang.java.softwaretools Tools for developing/maintaining Java
programs
 Don't cross-post between these groups and c.l.j.programmer or .help --
it just
 wastes the time of people reading the general groups.

 Don't post about JavaScript; it's a different language.  See
 comp.lang.javascript instead.

                         * comp.lang.java.gui FAQ *
 ________________________________________________________________________

 Table of Contents

 PART I =================================================================

 SECTION 1 - Introduction
   Q1.1 What is this, and what does it contain?
   Q1.2 What's not in here?
   Q1.3 Where do I find a copy of the FAQ?
   Q1.4 There are so many Java FAQs.
        Which is the right, official one?
   Q1.5 Does Sun support or endorse this FAQ?
   Q1.6 I noticed broken links in the FAQ.
        Don't you verify them before publishing?
   Q1.7 Is there an HTML, Word, <whatever format version of the FAQ?
   Q1.8 What is AWT?
   Q1.9 What is Swing?
   Q1.10 What is SWT?

 SECTION 2 - The comp.lang.java.gui Newsgroup
   Q2.1 What is the newsgroup's charter? What are acceptable topics?
   Q2.2 Which topics are not welcome in the newsgroup?
   Q2.3 Where can I find an archive of the newsgroup?
   Q2.4 What is an SSCCE?
   Q2.5 Why don't people like top-posting? What is top-posting?
   Q2.6 Is there more about posting to newsgroups and asking questions?
   Q2.7 Does Sun support or endorse the newsgroup?

 SECTION 3 - The Top 5 Questions
   Q3.1 My GUI freezes or doesn't update. What to do?
   Q3.2 How do I update the GUI from another thread?
   Q3.3 I have arranged all my widgets nicely on a window. Then I
        changed the OS / Java version / font / PLAF. Now everything is
        broken. What's going on?
   Q3.4 My graphics on a Canvas/JPanel/JComponent, etc. gets
        corrupted, or I get a null pointer exception when trying
        to draw. How can I avoid this?
   Q3.5 How to create a transparent or non-rectangular window?

 SECTION 4 - Architecture
   Q4.1 What is this Model-View-Controller (MVC) stuff?
   Q4.2 What is the Swing single-threading issue?
   Q4.3 What is the right way to start a Swing GUI?
   Q4.4 What is full-screen exclusive mode?
   Q4.5 What is active rendering?

 PART II ================================================================

 SECTION 5 - Window / [J]Frame / [J]Dialog (Top-Level Containers)
   Q5.1 How can I ensure a window is always on top of all other windows
        using AWT or Swing?
   Q5.2 How can I (de)iconify a window?
   Q5.3 How can I replace/remove the icon in the title bar (window
        decoration) of a [J]Frame?
   Q5.4 How to replace the icon in the title bar (window decoration)
        of a [J]Dialog?
   Q5.5 My modal dialog goes behind the main window. How can I ensure
        it is in front instead?
   Q5.6 How to bind the escape key to the JDialog cancel operation?
   Q5.7 How can I implement my own JFrame/JDialog close handling?
   Q5.8 How Do I center a window on the screen?  How do I get the
        screen size?
   Q5.9 How to ensure a minimum or maximum window size?
   Q5.10 How to ensure a particular aspect ration of a window?
   Q5.11 How can I delegate the window placement to the window system
         or manager?
   Q5.12 I need to take some toolbar (dock, panel) size into account when
         calculating a window position an/or size. How?
   Q5.13 My window layout is displayed incorrectly. I have to move
         the window, before the layout is right.  What's wrong?
   Q5.14 How can I display a Splash Screen at the start of my Program?

 SECTION 6 - [J]Component (Widgets)
   6.1 General Questions
     Q6.1.1 How do I position components (widgets) on a window?
     Q6.1.2 How to create a transparent widget?
     Q6.1.3 How to create a non-rectangular widget?
     Q6.1.4 What are Insets?
     Q6.1.5 How do I find a component's top-level container (e.g.
            the window)?

   6.2 JTree
     Q6.2.1 I changed the data / structure for my JTree, but the display
            doesn't get updated. What's going on?
     Q6.2.2 How do I set a custom icon for a node?
     Q6.2.3 How do I remove all my nodes from a JTree at once?

   6.3 Styled Text / JEditorPane / JTextPane
     Q6.3.1 Can I use RTFEditorKit to read RTF documents created by Word?
     Q6.3.2 I have problems using the Swing HTML parser to parse all
            kinds of HTML. Is this normal?
     Q6.3.3 Some of my CSS styles don't work out. Is this normal?
     Q6.3.4 Can I use Swing's HTML support to write a web browser?
     Q6.3.5 Can I use Swing's HTML support to build an on-line
            help system or e-book?
     Q6.3.6 If HTML support is really so broken in Java, what is it
            good for?

   6.4 [J]TextArea
     Q6.4.1 I append text to a JTextArea. How to ensure the text
            area is always scrolled down to the end of the text?
     Q6.4.2 How to use several different fonts (styles, sizes) in
            one [J]TextArea?

   6.5 [J]Label / [J]Button
     Q6.5.1 How can I have multiple Lines in a [J]Label?
     Q6.5.2 I want to have a hyperlink in a [J]Label. How can I do this?
     Q6.5.3 How do I make a JButton the default button in a JDialog?

 SECTION 7 - JScrollPane
   Q7.1 I added a component (e.g. a JPanel with an image) to a
        scrollpane, but the scrollpane doesn't show it at the right
        size / without scrollbars, etc. What's wrong?

 PART III ===============================================================

 SECTION 8 - Graphics & Painting
   Q8.1 What is the equivalent of AWT's Canvas in Swing?
   Q8.2 When drawing on a JPanel, the background is garbled.
   Q8.3 How do I generate some charts / plots in Java?
   Q8.4 How to draw some graphs in Java?
   Q8.5 I want to write a diagram editor. Where to start?
   Q8.6 How do I draw lines between JLabels on a JPanel?
   Q8.7 How to debug graph painting?
   Q8.8 I need to draw a tree. How?
   Q8.9 I need an algorithm for drawing ...
   Q8.10 When I subclass JPanel/JComponent, I need to override paint(),
         right?
   Q8.11 Why does drawImage() fail when I try to display a loaded image?
         Why are the width and height of my loaded image both zero?
   Q8.12 How do I resize (zoom in/out) my Graphics?
   Q8.13 Where do I find the icons which are used by Swing
         itself?
   Q8.14 Where do I find typical application icons?

 SECTION 9 - Fonts
   Q9.1 Which Fonts can I use? Can I use font <xyz?
   Q9.2 How to turn on text antialiasing in Swing?
   Q9.3 Why do some of my characters get displayed as squares?

 SECTION 10 - Other Common Questions
   Q10.1 My GUI has rendering problems when the JMenu opens over my
         top Panel ...
   Q10.2 Can I use Swing for Applets?
   Q10.3 How do I change a color/font/etc. globally for an
         application?
   Q10.4 How do I get all the UIDefaults, and what do they mean?
   Q10.5 Why is Swing so slow?

 SECTION 11 - Non-GUI Questions
   Q11.1 How do I do a text/console UI in Java?
   Q11.2 How can I do this JavaScript thing on my web site?
   Q11.3 I want to make ...

 SECTION 12 - Resources
   12.1 Sun's Java Web Site
   12.2 Other Sun Sites
   12.3 Icons
   12.4 Miscellaneous Examples, Tips and Tricks
   12.5 Style Guides
   12.6 SDK Documentation
   12.7 More Swing
   12.8 Online Magazines
   12.9 Java 2D API
   12.10 Java 3D API
   12.11 General Java
   12.12 More?
     Q12.12.1 But I need more!

 SECTION 13 - Improvement Suggestions

 SECTION 14 - Acknowledgments
 ________________________________________________________________________

 PART I
 ========================================================================

 SECTION 1 - Introduction
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Q1.1 What is this, and what does it contain?

 This is the FAQ for the comp.lang.java.gui newsgroup. It mostly deals
 with Java Standard Edition Swing issues, and contains some AWT
 information, too.

 In many cases these are also topics many readers would like NOT to see
 discussed again soon.

 Q1.2 What's not in here?

 This is not a general introduction to programming, Java programming, or
 GUI programming. Further it is assumed that the reader is familiar with
 Java and GUI terminology.

 Also, the following topics are either not covered at all or just cursory
 touched, since they are not often discussed in c.l.j.g, have own groups,
 and/or the FAQ author is not knowledgeable about them:

         * J2ME GUI programming

         * Java 3D programming (see <news:comp.lang.java.3d)

         * Java game programming

         * Computer graphics algorithms
           (see <news:comp.graphics.algorithms)

 Q1.3 Where do I find a copy of the FAQ?

 1) The FAQ is regularly posted to

     <news:comp.lang.java.gui

 2) At Usenet archives like

     <http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/faqs/faqs-hierarchy/comp/comp.lang.java.gui/
     <ftp://ftp.cs.uu.nl/pub/NEWS.ANSWERS/computer-lang/java/gui/
     <http://www.uni-giessen.de/faq/archiv/computer-lang.java.gui.faq/

 3) Just search an archive like

     <http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.java.gui

 4) People have placed (sometimes older) versions of the FAQ on web
    sites, too, e.g.

     <http://mindprod.com/jgloss/guifaq.html
     <http://www.physci.org/guifaq.jsp

 5) There is even a Japanese translation around:

     <http://homepage1.nifty.com/algafield/JavaGUIFaq19j.html

 Q1.4 There are so many Java FAQs.
      Which is the right, official one?

 There is probably not THE FAQ. Everyone can start an FAQ, and many have
 done so (and many have stopped after a few weeks).

 See it as some benefit. There is a lot of information out there. Note,
 however, that there is at least one so-called "Java FAQ" which just
 recycles postings from the comp.lang.java.* newsgroups and distributes
 them as a newsletter and as a book. You might consider searching an
 archive of the groups instead of paying for this material.

 For a list of other FAQs and FAQ lists :-) see the "Resources" chapter
 of this FAQ and

     <http://mindprod.com/jgloss/faqs.html

 Q1.5 Does Sun support or endorse this FAQ?

 No, it is just a newsgroup FAQ. Sun probably doesn't know about it.

 NOTE: The author of this FAQ does not have any inside information or
       contacts to Sun's Java or GUI development team and has never been
       contacted by Sun. Therefore, the FAQ's author is not in a
       position to forward suggestions to Sun or help with expedited
       answers from Sun.  Please refrain from such requests.

 See also: "Q2.7 Does Sun support or endorse the newsgroup?"

 Q1.6 I noticed broken links in the FAQ.
      Don't you verify them before publishing?

 No, I don't. I rely on feedback from readers. Also, links might break
 at any time, e.g. just seconds after a link has been verified.

 Q1.7 Is there an HTML, Word, <whatever format version of the FAQ?

 There is no such official version. Some people went through the effort
 to convert the FAQ to HTML. I suggest to use the

     <http://txt2html.sourceforge.net

 software to create am HTML version for personal usage.

 See also: "Q1.3 Where do I find a copy of the FAQ?"

 Q1.8 What is AWT?

 AWT (The Abstract Window Toolkit) is Sun's first Java GUI toolkit. It
 is rather limited and uses the native GUI components of the operating
 system.

 Unless you have to support an old VM, Swing is usual the better choice
 for a Java GUI toolkit.

 Q1.9 What is Swing?

 Swing is Sun's second attempt at a Java toolkit. It is rich in
 functions and widgets, and is considered the standard Java GUI
 toolkit.  Nowadays it is bundled with the Java 2 Standard Edition.

 Most parts of Swing are written in Java, especially most of the GUI
 components. Swing uses some parts of AWT in order to gain access to the
 native GUI system for event handling and top-level containers. It is
 build on AWT's lightweight component framework.

 Q1.10 What is SWT?

 SWT is an alternative GUI toolkit from IBM. Unlike AWT and Swing, it is
 not part of the Java 2 Standard Edition. You have to obtain it
 separately for the platforms you want to support (it uses a native
 library).

 SECTION 2 - The comp.lang.java.gui Newsgroup
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Q2.1 What is the newsgroup's charter? What are acceptable topics?

 The voting for the group with the group's charter passed on
 1997-04-10:

     <http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=860665862.3170%40isc.org

 A longer history of comp.lang.java.* reorganizations can be found in

     <ftp://ftp.isc.org/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/comp/comp.lang.ja
     va-reorg

 Here is an excerpt from the '97 reorg charter (Note, "all groups"
 refers to all the Java groups from that voting, including
 comp.lang.java.gui):

  CHARTER: all groups

  The normal practice should be that most articles are posted to one
  single, correct group ONLY.  Cross-posting is only appropriate when
  the problem is hard to categorize or when it legitimately concerns
  more than one group.  Answers should be posted to a single group only
  once the nature of the problem has been ascertained.  Many articles of
  this sort should go to comp.lang.java.help (only).

  It is not appropriate to post binary class files or long (longer than
  one or two screenfuls) source listings on any of these groups.
  Instead, the post should reference a WWW or FTP site (short source
  snippets to demonstrate a particular point or problem are fine).

  END CHARTER.

 [...]

  CHARTER: comp.lang.java.gui

  This unmoderated group is for any and all discussion relating to
  GUI toolkits or window frameworks in Java.  Topics include the AWT,
  Netscape's IFC, Microsoft's planned AFC, Visix's Vibe toolkit, among
  others.  The newsgroup will also be the appropriate place for
  discussion of the JDK event model, mouse and keyboard issues,
  bugs in windowing code, and graphics programming in Java.  If it
  concerns something that can be seen on the screen, it belongs in this
  group.

  END CHARTER.

 One will note the list of ancient Java GUI technologies, and the
 absence of Swing. It is safe to say, that nowadays most discussions are
 about Swing, plus a few about AWT and Java printing.

 Q2.2 Which topics are not welcome in the newsgroup?

 Of course, this question is never asked, but over the time, it has
 turned out that certain types of postings are not welcome, even if Java
 related. This includes:

         * Issues answered in this FAQ are issues most posters don't want
           to see discussed again soon.

         * Posting your homework.

         * Advocacy. Goto comp.lang.java.advocacy instead.

         * Postings urging the readers to help. Especially in
           conjunction with whining. No one in the group is paid to help
           you. No one owns you anything.

         * Public and hidden advertising. You think you are too clever
           to be caught?  Well, read this thread in our sister group
           c.l.j.programmer first, and watch how some business lost all
           its reputation:

             http://groups.google.com/groups?threadm=58882783.
             0307010403.67c54a5f%40posting.google.com

         * Postings which just contain a statement like "Help! It does
           not work!", without any additional information, like the
           exact error message, source code, or even a hint what "it" is
           supposed to mean.

         * Postings demonstrating unwillingness to learn are not
           welcome, too.  And learning starts by reading the API
           documentation before posting.

         * Test messages are not welcome. Instead, use alt.test.*, and
           learn how newsgroups work.

 See also: "Q2.4 What is an SSCCE?"

 Q2.3 Where can I find an archive of the newsgroup?

 See e.g.

     <http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.java.gui

 Q2.4 What is an SSCCE?

 Short/small, self contained, compilable, example (source code).

 It would be best if you provide such short (see the group's charter)
 example source code in your first request for help. When asked for one,
 please don't complain that your source code is too large, too tricky,
 too secret for being cut down to a reasonable size and posted. You have
 the problem, and you asked in a public forum, so it is in your interest
 to provide the requested information.

 For more information about hacking some example code together, go to

     <http://www.physci.org/codes/sscce.jsp

 Q2.5 Why don't people like top-posting? What is top-posting?

 See the following Question & Answer (well, Answer & Question) section:

    A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
    Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
    A: Top-posting.
    Q: What is the most annoying thing on Usenet and in e-mail?

                                             -- Common Usenet signature

 Q2.6 Is there more about posting to newsgroups and asking questions?

 Yes, see e.g. the following for making the most out of a newsgroup
 (ignore the hacker slang):

     <http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
     [The author of that web page has requested a notice that he is not
     a general help desk for all your problems].

     <http://www.yoda.arachsys.com/java/newsgroups.html

 Also see the newsgroups:

     <news:news.newusers.questions
     <news:news.answers

 And RFC 1855. E.g. at

     <ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc1855.txt
     <http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html

 Q2.7 Does Sun support or endorse the newsgroup?

 Frankly, no one really knows, but it doesn't appear so. From time to
 time a poster can be spotted apparently working for Sun's Swing
 development team. But there is no one in an official capacity from Sun
 taking part in the discussions.

 It is safe to say that the newsgroup isn't of much interest for Sun,
 and that suggestions or informed opinions posted to the group will most
 likely not be seen, noted or followed-up by Sun.

 You might want to try

     <http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/bugParade/
 or
     <http://jcp.org/

 if you want to suggest some changes to Java. Good luck.

 See also: "Q1.5 Does Sun support or endorse this FAQ?"

 SECTION 3 - The Top 5 Questions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Q3.1 My GUI freezes or doesn't update. What to do?

 Most likely you are blocking the event dispatching thread (EDT).
 Offload time-consuming tasks from your event listeners to separate
 threads.

 You can do the necessary implementation by hand, it is rather simple:

     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
         new Thread(new Runnable() {
             public void run() {
                 //
                 // Do some time consuming task
                 //
                 ...

                 //
                 // Update the GUI from within the task
                 // synchronous: invokeAndWait()
                 // asynchronous: invokeLater()
                 //
                 SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
                     public void run() {
                         //
                         // GUI code
                         //
                     }
                 });

             }
         }).start(); // start the thread
     }

 Or you can use existing frameworks like the SwingWorker class from
 Sun. See the series of articles in

     <http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/threads/threads1.html

 SwingWorker is earmarked for inclusion into Java Standard Edition 1.6.

 For some special cases you can give paintImmediately() a look.  See

     <http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/painting/index.html

 for some information about using paintImmediately().

 See also: "Q3.2 How do I update the GUI from another thread?"

 Q3.2 How do I update the GUI from another thread?

 If you have to update the GUI from another thread (e.g. once you
 offloaded a time consuming task from the EDT to another thread) you
 should use the javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater() or
 javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(). Often you want
 invokeLater().

 The code is rather simple. E.g. when using an anonymous class:

         SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
                 public void run() {
                         // Code to be executed on the EDT
                 }
             }
         );
         // Current thread will immediately continue here

 And

         SwingUtilities.invokeAndWait(new Runnable() {
                 public void run() {
                         // Code to be executed on the EDT
                 }
             }
         );
         // Current thread will wait until code has been executed on
         // the EDT.

 Again, see

     <http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/threads/threads1.html

 for more details.

 See also: "Q3.1 My GUI freezes or doesn't update. What to do?"

 Q3.3 I have arranged all my widgets nicely on a window. Then I
      changed the OS / Java version / font / PLAF. Now everything is
      broken. What's going on?

 This sounds as if you don't use layout managers, but instead hard-coded
 component sizes and widgets. If you want to avoid this problem, there
 is no way around using layout managers, or implementing your own
 geometry management from scratch.

 Q3.4 My graphics on a Canvas/JPanel/JComponent, etc. gets
      corrupted, or I get a null pointer exception when trying
      to draw. How can I avoid this?

 Do not use Component.getGraphics(). Instead, subclass and override the
 paint() (AWT), or paintComponent() (Swing) method.

 Component.getGraphics() simply can't work. Java's normal drawing mode
 is called 'passive rendering'. It is based on a callback mechanism.
 The drawing code is supposed to sit passively there until Java asks it to
 draw something by calling your paint()/paintComponent() method.

 At that moment you are supposed to provide the Component with the
 drawings you would like to do by using the provide Graphics/Graphics2D
 drawing context. You are not supposed to "push" graphics information
 into a component using getGraphics() or any other means.

 This mechanism is necessary so Java can support graphics systems which
 don't remember a window's contents when it is obscured (e.g. overlayed
 by another window). When the window becomes visible again, such
 graphics systems have to ask the application to reconstruct the window
 content. Therefore, paint()/paintComponent() is supposed to be the
 memory of a component. getGraphics(), however, doesn't have any
 recollection of previous drawing operations. So once a drawing done via
 getGraphics() is lost, it can't be reconstructed. There is nothing in
 there that stores the old drawing data, and there is nothing in
 AWT/Swing which informs getGraphics() to do some re-drawing.

 In addition, there are situations where Component.getGraphics() simply
 returns null. This is a defined behavior of the method. And finally,
 most users of getGraphics() forget to dispose the Graphics object after
 usage, thus creating a resource leak.

 See

     <http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/painting/index.html

 for more information about Java's normal painting model.

 For very special cases (games, animations, slide shows, etc.), you might
 want to flip to an 'active rendering' mode. Active rendering best works
 when you wholly one the screen in full-screen exclusive mode.

 See also: "Q4.4 What is full-screen exclusive mode?"

 Q3.5 How to create a transparent or non-rectangular window?

 You can't in a good, platform independent way.

 Although particular Swing components can be 'transparent', the
 problem is the top-level window. That window is always rectangular, and
 in almost all Java implementations non-transparent.

 Depending on your circumstances, platform, etc., one of the following
 might (partly) work:

 1) Ugly Hack, all platforms, Java 1.3+

    One hack is to take a snapshot of the underlying screen region using
    java.awt.Robot.createScreenCapture(rectangle). And then using that
    snapshot as a background image for the window. If the background
    changes, the illusion is gone.

     <http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/java/library/j-iframe/

    is a JFrame subclass which uses Robot to add transparency.

 2) Windows

    The nativeskin.jar of the Skin LnF at

     <https://skinlf.dev.java.net/

    provides a Windows-only region feature for building non-rectangular
    windows. It comes with a native Win32 library, so applications
    written with this library are not portable to other platforms.

    It should in principle be possible to write a similar library for
    other GUI systems (e.g. X11 with the very common shape extension).

 3) Apple OS X

    Apple's Java for OS X observes the alpha-component of the window
    background color, like one would expect from any Java
    implementation.  Therefore, any amount of transparency of a
    top-level window can be configured by just constructing an
    appropriate Color object and setting it as background color. E.g.
    the following sets a completely transparent background:

         window.setBackground(new Color(0, 0, 0, 0));

    Non rectangular-looking windows can be constructed by

        - Turning the normal window decoration of (if any), and

        - Using an image (in a format which supports an alpha component,
          e.g. PNG) as the window background.

 4) Applet

    An alternative for applets which might be good enough in some cases
    can be found here:

 <http://java.sun.com/docs/books/faq/src/app/MatchBackgroundExample.html

 See also: "Q6.1.2 How to create a transparent widget?"
           "Q6.1.3 How to create a non-rectangular widget?"

 SECTION 4 - Architecture
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Q4.1 What is this Model-View-Controller (MVC) stuff?

 MVC is a way to structure an application. It is based on the idea of
 separating the presentation of data from the data itself.  MVC
 originated in the Smalltalk world and has since then become a common
 design pattern.

 Swing uses a variant of MVC (not THE original MVC as Smalltalk users
 will point out).

 The following TSC article contains a good description of Swing's
 architecture and MVC variant:

     <http://www.javadesktop.org/tsc/articles/architecture/index.html

 Q4.2 What is the Swing single-threading issue?

 There is really no issue. With very few exceptions Swing is not thread
 safe. But it can be safely used in a multi-threaded environment if the
 necessary precautions are taken.

 There are three simple things to take care of, not more:

         1. Call all Swing API methods from the event dispatching thread
            (EDT), unless the API documentation states that a method can
            be called from another thread (is thread safe).

            NOTE: The API documentation has been known to be wrong in
                  the past.  Check Sun's bug parade when in doubt.

         2. If you are not in the EDT, but need to call a Swing API
            method, use either invokeAndWait() or invokeLater() to
            schedule your code for execution on the EDT.

         3. Do not block the EDT. That is, don't run time-consuming
            tasks on the EDT. Instead, run these tasks in a separate
            thread and use an invoke...() method to update the GUI from
            that separate thread.

 There is really nothing more to it.

 See also: "Q3.1 My GUI freezes or doesn't update. What to do?"
           "Q3.2 How do I update the GUI from another thread?"
           "Q4.3 What is the right way to start a Swing GUI?"

 Q4.3 What is the right way to start a Swing GUI?

 Sun almost silently changed the recommended GUI startup procedure. At
 the beginning of 2004 the examples in Sun's GUI tutorial were changed,
 and some rather short "explanation" was given. The explanation can be
 summarized as: "There is a threading bug somewhere in Swing. To work
 around, already build and start the GUI from the EDT". No more useful
 information is provided, e.g. if Sun knows the root cause of the bug
 and intends to fix it.

 So now the official way to build and start (calling setVisible(true))
 the GUI is to use invokeLater(). The shortest version of a GUI
 application's main() method becomes:

     public static void main(String[] args) {
         invokeLater(new Runnable() {
             public void run() {
                 //
                 // Build and start the GUI here.
                 //
             }
         });
     }

 See also: "Q4.2 What is the Swing single-threading issue?"

 Q4.4 What is full-screen exclusive mode?

 As the name implies, a means to use the whole screen exclusively for
 your applications, like it is e.g. needed for games, industrial control
 applications, or slide shows. It was introduced with java 1.4.

 You are much closer to the graphics hardware then in normal mode. This
 requires some programming techniques which are different from normal
 Swing/AWT programming. Full-screen exclusive mode is often used together
 with active rendering. See

     <http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/extra/fullscreen/index.html

 Q4.5 What is active rendering?

 Active rendering is an a drawing method where you 'push' your graphics
 on the screen instead of the usual callback-based method ('passive
 rendering') where you wait until you are asked to draw something.

 Active rendering results in a completely different application
 architecture, and is only recommended for games, animations, etc. It
 works best in full-screen exclusive mode. It is often combined with
 page-flip BufferStrategy.

 See also: "Q4.4 What is full-screen exclusive mode?"
           "Q3.4 My graphics on a Canvas/JPanel/JComponent, etc. gets
                 corrupted, or I get a null pointer exception when trying
                 to draw. How can I avoid this?"

 PART II
 ========================================================================

 SECTION 5 - Window / [J]Frame / [J]Dialog (Top-Level Containers)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Q5.1 How can I ensure a window is always on top of all other windows
      using AWT or Swing?

 1) Before Java 1.5 you couldn't at all:

    AWT and Swing didn't provide this feature. All you could do was to
    use a (modal) [J]Dialog, and make sure the [J]Dialog is provided
    with the correct parent/owner in the constructor.

 2) Since Java 1.5:

    You have Window.setAlwaysOnTop(), which is inherited by the other
    top-level containers like JFrame. However, the implementation is
    incomplete, and not supported on all platforms. There are especially
    problems with a number of Unix version / Window manager version
    combinations.

 Q5.2 How can I (de)iconify a window?

 1) Before Java 1.2 you had to revert to native calls.

 2) Since Java 1.2 you can use [J]Frame.setState().

 3) Since Java 1.4 you can use [J]Frame.setExtendedState(), too.
    setExtendedState() provides more features than setState().

 Q5.3 How can I replace/remove the icon in the title bar (window
      decoration) of a [J]Frame?

 Use setIconImage().

 To revert to the platform's default icon use:

         frame.setIconImage(null);

 On some platforms this might remove the icon. Alternatively you can try
 a transparent Image if you don't want to have an icon.

 Q5.4 How to replace the icon in the title bar (window decoration)
      of a [J]Dialog?

 There is only a partial solution to this problem, and it is not
 recommended.

 A dialog gets its icon from its parent frame. You can create a dummy
 frame which you don't show, set the icon of that dummy frame, and use
 it in the constructor of the dialog as the dialog's owner:

         JFrame dummy = new JFrame();
         Image icon   = ...
         dummyFrame.setIconImage(icon);
         JDialog dialog = new JDialog(dummy);

 However, this is dangerous. Certain GUI behavior depends on a correct
 [J]Frame (parent window) <- [J]Dialog (child window) relation.
 Introducing a dummy parent breaks this relation. Things which can go
 wrong include (de)iconising of all windows of an application, and
 ensuring a modal dialog is always placed on-top of the main window.

 Q5.5 My modal dialog goes behind the main window. How can I ensure
      it is in front instead?

 Make sure you have properly set up the 'owner' of the dialog in the
 dialog's constructor. Don't use null, and don't use a dummy frame (to
 set the dialog's icon).

 Q5.6 How to bind the escape key to the JDialog cancel operation?

 First the bad news. Some JComponent, like JComboBox or JTable use the
 escape key by themselves. As a result, the following will not work,
 unless you manage to remove the escape key handling from these
 components.

 To bind the escape key to some operation use code like it follows:

     final String ESC_ACTION_KEY = "ESC_ACTION_KEY";
     theDialog.getRootPane().getActionMap().put(
         ESC_ACTION_KEY,
         new AbstractAction() {
             public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                 //
                 // perform the action associated with the escape key
                 //
                 // e.g. inform all window listeners, or just call
                 // dispose()
                 //
             }
     });

     theDialog.getRootPane().getInputMap(
         JComponent.WHEN_ANCESTOR_OF_FOCUSED_COMPONENT
     ).put(
         KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_ESCAPE, 0),
         ESC_ACTION_KEY
     );

 Q5.7 How can I implement my own JFrame/JDialog close handling?

 Ironically, by setting the JDialog, JFrame, or JInternalFrame default
 close operation to do nothing:

     theJDialog.setDefaultCloseOperation(JDialog.DO_NOTHING_ON_CLOSE);

 And then adding an own window listener:

     theJDialog.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() {
         public void windowClosing(WindowEvent we) {
             //
             // Ask for closing confirmation,
             // perform any necessary cleanup, etc. here.
             // Close window if desired.
             //
             // we.getWindow().dispose();  // close window
         }
     });

 Q5.8 How Do I center a window on the screen?  How do I get the
      screen size?

 1) Manually, pre 1.4:

    Use java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize() to get the
    screen size, and do the math:

         import java.awt.*;
         Dimension winSize = win.getSize();
         Dimension screenSize =
                         Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getScreenSize();
         win.setLocation(
                 (screenSize.width  - winSize.width) / 2,
                 (screenSize.height - winSize.height) / 2
         );

 2) Since 1.4:

         Window.setLocationRelativeTo(null);

 Q5.9 How to ensure a minimum or maximum window size?

 You can't in a good way. Swing and AWT ignore the minimumSize and
 maximumSize attributes. E.g. if your GUI system allows you to
 interactively resize a window to the size of 1 x 1 pixels Swing/AWT will
 happily allow this.

 A few ugly hacks are possible to correct the size after the the unwanted
 resizing happened. They are ugly, because the window snaps back, due to
 the fact that the original resizing is not prevent but just corrected
 with another resizing.

 This correction can e.g. be done with an event listener, listening to
 window component resizing events. Or it can be done by overriding the
 doLayout() method. In both cases, the actual size can be obtained with
 getWidth()/getHeight() and, if the size is not acceptable, corrected
 with setSize() (which triggers the second resizing and makes the window
 jump).

 See also: "Q5.10 How to ensure a particular aspect ration of a window?"

 Q5.10 How to ensure a particular aspect ration of a window?

 You can't in a good way. You can use similar hacks as the ones for
 enforcing a minimum or maximum window size.

 See also: "Q5.9 How to ensure a minimum or maximum window size?"

 Q5.11 How can I delegate the window placement to the window system
       or manager?

 First of all, you of course need to use a window manager or system which
 is capable of placing the windows by its own. The rest depends on the
 Java version:

 1) Before Java 1.5:

    You have no control over the behavior.  If you don't specify an
    explicit window position this might be interpreted as the position
    (0, 0) and the window might be placed there, or it might be
    interpreted as a request to position the window where it best fits.

    The same might happen when you explicitly specify (0, 0) as the
    position. Some systems interpret this as a request to place the
    window where it best fits, others just position the window at (0, 0).

 2) Since Java 1.5:

    Sun has added a hack for specifying the desired behavior.  If the
    java.awt.Window.locationByPlatform system property is set to true, a
    window manager can place a window with the origin (0, 0) or no
    specified origin at will. If the property is false, a window with the
    origin (0, 0) is indeed positioned at (0, 0).

    The behavior can also be specified on a per window, per
    setVisible(true) basis by using Window.locationByPlatform(true)
    immediately before setVisible(true).

 Q5.12 I need to take some toolbar (dock, panel) size into account when
       calculating a window position an/or size. How?

 The information is not available on all platforms. If you are lucky,
 Toolkit.getScreenInsets() delivers information about the screen border
 space occupied by the toolbar (dock, panel, or whatever your window
 system uses). You can uses this information in your calculations.

         Insets i = theWindow.getToolkit().getScreenInsets(
                          theWindow.getGraphicsConfiguration()
                  );

 Do not assume that the desired size is e.g. always in Insets.bottom.
 Many graphics systems allow to move the toolbar to the top or a side of
 the screen, too. Or they allow to have multiple toolbars.  Always take
 all four values into account.

 In general, for cross-platform compatibility, it is best to not rely on
 this information at all. If it is essential for your application then at
 least provide some configuration means to manually specify some screen
 border space. This way people on systems where the information is not
 available can still use your application as desired by you.

 See also: "Q6.1.4 What are Insets?"

 Q5.13 My window layout is displayed incorrectly. I have to move
       the window, before the layout is right.  What's wrong?

 It is likely that you have changed the layout after you showed the
 window. The layout is not redone in such cases, unless you tell the
 container to do so. It is best to first finish the construction of
 the window before showing it. If you really can't do this, then

 1) for AWT:

    Call invalidate() followed by validate() on the window.

 2) for Swing:

    Call revalidate() on the JComponent (JPanel) of which you changed
    the layout.

 Alternatively one can call pack() after invalidating the window.
 Sometimes it is recommended to follow the validate()/revalidate() call
 with a repaint(). This should not be necessary, If you have to do so,
 it might be a component's opaque handling and or
 paint()/paintComponent() method is broken.

 See also: "Q8.1 What is the equivalent of AWT's Canvas in Swing?"
           "Q8.2 When drawing on a JPanel, the background is garbled."
           "Q3.4 My graphics on a Canvas/JPanel/JComponent, etc. gets
                 corrupted, or I get a null pointer exception when trying
                 to draw. How can I avoid this?"

 Q5.14 How can I display a Splash Screen at the start of my Program?

 In general, if you add a splash screen to your application, be nice to
 your users and allow it to be turned off via some configuration option.
 Splash screens can become very annoying.

 1) Up and including Java 1.5

    Use an (AWT) Window to display some image. Even if your application
    has a Swing based GUI, you should only use AWT classes to build the
    splash screen. You will anyhow have to wait until the VM comes up, but
    you avoid having to wait for the loading of the huge amount of Swing
    classes if you restrict yourself to AWT.

 2) Since 1.6

    The VM has a command line option for specifying a splash screen
    image.  That image is displayed even before the VM runs any Java
    code. It can be an animated GIF.

         java -splash:splashImage.gif ...

    Java 1.6+ also has an API for accessing and manipulating the splash
    screen once the Java program is running. See the
    java.awt.SplashScreen class.

    And Java 1.6+ has a corresponding Manifest file keyword for
    specifying a splash screen image:

         SplashScreen-Image: splashImage.gif

 SECTION 6 - [J]Component (Widgets)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 6.1 General Questions

 Q6.1.1 How do I position components (widgets) on a window?

 You add them to [J]Panels and use one or more of the many layout
 managers that come with Java (one for each [J]Panel). And you leave the
 exact calculation of the position to the layout managers.

 Learning the layout managers is essential to AWT and Swing
 programming.  Many people don't buy this and think they can get away
 without. Later they come to the newsgroup and whine because their GUIs
 don't work on other platforms, or don't look good when resized. But
 whining will not change their GUIs or the way AWT/Swing works. You have
 been warned.

 See and work through:

     <http://java.sun.com/books/tutorial/uiswing/layout/index.html

 Q6.1.2 How to create a transparent widget?

 First of all it should be noted that being able to have transparent
 widgets does not gurantee a transparent window, where the desktop
 shines through.  In fact, in general the non-transparent top-level
 window is where transparency stops.

 Since the introduction of the lightweight framework in Java 1.1 it is
 possible for a Component subclasses (if lightweight) to have
 transparent parts if properly implemented. Lightweight Swing Components
 are a special case, since Swing adds a switching mechanism so Swing
 components can basically be switched to have a transparent or filled
 background.

 So there are three different cases:

 1) Component (excluding Swing and heavyweight) subclasses

    All it takes is a subclass of Component with a paint()
    implementation that only draws the non-transparent parts.

    If an existing lightweight Component is subclassed to build a
    transparent component, it should be made sure that the superclass
    doesn't fill the background with the background color in the paint()
    method.

 2) JComponent (Swing) subclasses

    The Swing JComponent subclasses can usually be switched between
    painting all pixels within their boundaries or not. This, purely as
    a side-effect, effectively allows the programmer to control if the
    JComponent's background is non-transparent or transparent.

    This behavior is a side-effect of the opaque contract between
    JComponents and the Swing repaint manager.

         setOpaque(false)

    kindly ask a JComponent not to paint all pixels within its
    boundaries. For most, but not all, Swing components this results in
    a transparent background. If opaque is false, their paintComponent()
    method simply does not fill the background before painting the
    component. Also, the repaint manager, it it finds a component with
    isOpaque() == false, walks the component hierarchy to find the
    component below the current one. Because that one needs to be
    repainted first, to provide the background.

    Setting setOpaque(false) doesn't work for all JComponents. E.g. some
    contain nested component (e.g. JScrollPane) which need to be changed
    to be transparent, too. Or some PLAFs ignore the opaque attribute
    and always paint every pixel within their bounds. This behavior is
    not illegal, it is still covered by the opaque contract. But it
    means that the desired side-effect (transparency) of setting opaque
    to false will not work.

 3) Heavyweight Components

    Transparent heavyweight components are not supported in Sun's
    Java implementation.

 See also: "Q3.5 How to create a transparent or non-rectangular window?"
           "Q6.1.3 How to create a non-rectangular widget?"

 Q6.1.3 How to create a non-rectangular widget?

 The boundaries of a Component (widget) in Java are always rectangular.
 Non-rectangular Components can be faked by implementing Components with
 a transparent background.

 Java will still treat these components as rectangular objects. E.g. The
 standard layout managers always use the rectangular boundaries to
 layout Components. If another behavior is required for transparent
 Components (e.g. partly overlapping boundaries) custom layout mangers
 need to be implemented.

 See also: "Q3.5 How to create a transparent or non-rectangular window?"
           "Q6.1.2 How to create a transparent widget?"

 Q6.1.4 What are Insets?

 1) Simple answer:

   Insets is a data type, describing additional space around some type
   of rectangle space, e.g. a component. A better choice of words would
   have been border space.

 2) More detailed answer:

   There is no consistent usage of the term or the Insets data type in
   AWT or Swing. Originally Insets were used in AWT to describe the size
   of window decorations, like the size of a Frame's title bar, and
   borders in a GridBagLayout. Over the time Insets popped up in all
   sorts of places in AWT and Swing. Often there is no exact definition
   of what an Insets data type describes, especially in relation to the
   size of an item.

   For a particular usage of Insets one has to figure out if the Insets
   describe additional or subtractive space. Roughly, one has to figure
   out, often by experiment, which of the following holds true for a
   particular situation:

     usable size = item size - insets
     total size  = item size

   or

     usable size = item size
     total size  = item size + inset

   The exact relation doesn't matter in the trivial case

    Insets = {0, 0, 0, 0}

 Q6.1.5 How do I find a component's top-level container (e.g.
        the window)?

 Use
         SwingUtilities.getRoot()

 6.2 JTree

 Q6.2.1 I changed the data / structure for my JTree, but the display
        doesn't get updated. What's going on?

 Most likely you are directly manipulating the TreeNodes, instead of
 updating the data via the TreeModel. TreeNodes don't have any means to
 inform the JTree about changes. This is the job of the TreeModel.

 If you use DefaultTreeModel, all the event notification mechanisms are
 already implemented. If you use an own implementation of TreeModel, you
 need to implement the necessary event firing yourself.

 Don't call repaint() on the JTree. The JTree painting is not broken.
 Your event notification is. Get your event notification right.

 Q6.2.2 How do I set a custom icon for a node?

 If you just want to change the icon for all nodes from the default, get
 a DefaultCellRenderer, use the set...Icon() methods, and set the
 renderer to be used by the JTree.

 If you, however, need different icons for different nodes, then the
 following three steps are involved.

 1. Create your own TreeNode implementation (or subclass an existing
    TreeNode implementation).

    a. Add some means to the TreeNode to identify itself, e.g.

         public int getType() { // return a type id }

    b. Or let the TreeNode return a corresponding Icon (possibly a
       shared instance):

         public Icon getLeafIcon()   { /* return icon */ }
         public Icon getOpenIcon()   { /* return icon */ }
         public Icon getClosedIcon() { /* return icon */ }

    c. Or just rely on the type of your subclass (to be checked with
       instanceof). You will have to have an own subclass for each
       node which needs a different icon.

 2. Subclass DefaultTreeCellRenderer. Override
    getTreeCellRendererComponent():

    2.1. Start with

            Component getTreeCellRendererComponent(
                 JTree tree, Object value,
                 boolean sel, boolean expanded, boolean leaf,
                 int row,
                 boolean hasFocus)
            {

         And continue, depending on your TreeNode implementation:

    2.2a If you use a getType() method:

         YourTreeNode node = (YourTreeNode)value;
         // Use a lookup table (faster), some factory, or:
         switch(node.getType()) {
         case: ...
                 setLeafIcon(...);
                 setOpenIcon(...);
                 setClosedIcon(...);
                 break;
         }

    2.2b If you use a getIcon() method:

         YourTreeNode node = (YourTreeNode)value;
         setLeafIcon(node.getLeafIcon());
         setOpenIcon(node.getOpenIcon());
         setClosedIcon(node.getClosedIcon());

    2.2c If you rely on the type:

         if(value instanceof YourTreeNode) {
                 setLeafIcon(...);
                 setOpenIcon(...);
                 setClosedIcon(...);
         } else if(value instanceof ...) ...

    2.3. And finish with:

         return super.getTreeCellRendererComponent(
                 tree, value,
                 sel, expanded, leaf,
                 row,
                 hasFocus);

         }

 3. Use JTree.setCellRenderer() to set your renderer.

 Q6.2.3 How do I remove all my nodes from a JTree at once?

 Just replace the model. Deleting all nodes individually is a waste of
 time.

 JTree's API documentation does not indicate if it is permissible to use
 null as a model, but it is known to work in Sun's reference
 implementation:

         tree.setModel(null);

 If you don't trust his code, create an empty model and use it instead
 of null.

 6.3 Styled Text / JEditorPane / JTextPane

 Q6.3.1 Can I use RTFEditorKit to read RTF documents created by Word?

 Well, you can try. The RTFEditorKit is, however, very limited. There is
 a subtle hint in the RTFEditorKit API documentation. It points out that
 the Swing team "hops" to improve the class in the future. This hint is
 there since the first release of the class years ago.

 The newer your Word is, the less likely it is that the RTFEditorKit can
 read the RTF. There have been reports about crashes when using RTF
 generated by the latest Word version.

 Q6.3.2 I have problems using the Swing HTML parser to parse all
        kinds of HTML. Is this normal?

 Unfortunately it is. The Swing HTML parser is the old HotJava parser
 (Sun's pure Java web browser, once a separate product). It is limited
 and hasn't been updated for a long time. In principle it can deal with
 HTML 3.2 and style sheets. In practice it is picky.

 Use another parser if you have problems, or convert your HTML with HTML
 Tidy or its Java port JTidy before trying to read it.

     <http://tidy.sourceforge.net/
     <http://jtidy.sourceforge.net/

 Q6.3.3 Some of my CSS styles don't work out. Is this normal?

 Yes, for the same reasons as described in the previous answer. See the
 class javax.swing.text.html.CSS for a list of the officially supported
 CSS attributes, and brace yourself for some more deviations.

 Q6.3.4 Can I use Swing's HTML support to write a web browser?

 You can, but the resulting browser will suffer from the limitations of
 Swing's HTML parser and CSS handling. The parser was in fact originally
 developed for Sun's HotJava web browser. But this was years ago, and
 HotJava was never a serious competitor in the browser business.

 To get some ideas have a look at

     <http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/GUI/Swing1/shortcourse.
     html#JFCEditorPane

 Q6.3.5 Can I use Swing's HTML support to build an on-line
        help system or e-book?

 Sure you can. Or, you could take Sun's JavaHelp, which does exactly
 this. It uses the Swing HTML components to parse and render help text
 or other text written in HTML. It also provided for navigation and
 other common help features.

 Q6.3.6 If HTML support is really so broken in Java, what is it
        good for?

 As long as you have the generation of the HTML under your control it is
 quite usable. E.g. the JavaHelp system uses Swing's HTML parser and
 display capabilities.

 If you need to handle real-world HTML from sources not under your
 control, you better look for some other parser. E.g.

     <http://htmlparser.sourceforge.net/

 gets recommended often.

 6.4 [J]TextArea

 Q6.4.1 I append text to a JTextArea. How to ensure the text
        area is always scrolled down to the end of the text?

     textarea.setCaretPosition(textarea.getDocument().getLength());

 Q6.4.2 How to use several different fonts (styles, sizes) in
        one [J]TextArea?

 You can't. Use a J[Editor|Text]Pane.

 6.5 [J]Label / [J]Button

 Q6.5.1 How can I have multiple Lines in a [J]Label?

 1) Label

    You can't. Use a TextArea instead, and turn editing of the TextArea
    off.

 2) JLabel

    2.a) Use HTML markup in the label's Text. E.g.:

           theJLabel.setText("<htmlLine 1<brLine 2<brLine 3</html");

    2.b) Or use a JTextArea.

 Q6.5.2 I want to have a hyperlink in a [J]Label. How can I do this?

 You probably don't want to have a label, but a button.

 Just configure a JButton so it looks like a link. E.g. use HTML to
 format the button's text, and remove the button's border:

         b = new JButton("<html<ahttp://java.sun.com</a<html");
         b.setBorderPainted(false);

 Provide the button with an ActionListener to handle the ActionEvent
 when the button is clicked. Implement whatever is desired in the event
 handler. E.g. start an external web browser.

         b.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                 actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                         // start web browser
                 }
         });

 Q6.5.3 How do I make a JButton the default button in a JDialog?

 It is rather counter-intuitive, by telling the root pane of the JDialog
 about the button:

     theJDialog.getRootPane().setDefaultButton(theJButton);

 Some PLAFs might ignore this setting.

 SECTION 7 - JScrollPane
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 See also: "Q6.1.2 How to create a transparent widget?"
           "Q6.4.1 I append text to a JTextArea. How to ensure the text
                   area is always scrolled down to the end of the text?"

 Q7.1 I added a component (e.g. a JPanel with an image) to a
      scrollpane, but the scrollpane doesn't show it at the right
      size / without scrollbars, etc. What's wrong?

 Ensure that the component you added does return its desired size via
 getPreferredSize(). E.g. if you have a JPanel holding an image, ensure
 that the JPanel's getPreferredSize() returns the size of the image.

 PART III
 ========================================================================

 SECTION 8 - Graphics & Painting
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 See also: "SECTION 3 - The Top 5 Questions"

 Q8.1 What is the equivalent of AWT's Canvas in Swing?

 It depends on your purpose, and on the level of compliance you want to
 have with the Swing opaque handling.

 Use
         a) JPanel, if you want to have a "complete" component with a
            UI delegate which handles opaque settings (if
            paintComponent() is correctly overridden).

         b) JComponent, if you intend to always draw every pixel in the
            area of the component (and break the opaque attribute API
            contract, don't worry, most likely no one will notice). If
            you need to have your own special key and mouse processing,
            you might also want to start with JComponent and create
            your own UI delegate.

         c) You could even start higher up in the inheritance chain.
            java.awt.Component is lightweight since Java 1.1. However,
            you will not get Swing additions like double-buffering.

         d) Canvas. No joke. Under very special circumstances (e.g.
            game programming, accelerated graphics) AWT's Canvas might
            be the right thing to use, even under Swing. Under normal
            circumstances, however, this is not the right choice,
            because it brings the problem of mixing heavyweight and
            lightweight components.

 If this is all Greek to you, use JPanel. And remember, if you use
 JComponent or JPanel, override paintComponent(), not paint().

 Q8.2 When drawing on a JPanel, the background is garbled.

 It is likely that you managed to break the opaque handling of the
 component. Your JPanel instance promises (via getOpaque()) to draw
 each and every pixel under its influence, but doesn't.

 Start your paintComponent() method with a call to
 super.paintComponent(g) (which honors the opaque attribute and fills
 the background with the background color). Also, check the setting of
 the opaque flag, and have a look at the TSC article about "Painting".
 See the list of resources at the end for a link.

 Q8.3 How do I generate some charts / plots in Java?

 If you want to do the drawing in Java, consider using a chart drawing
 library. E.g.

     <http://www.jfree.org/jfreechart/index.html
     <http://www.jgraph.com/

 get recommended often. The web site also has a list of other chart
 libraries.

 If you just have to plot some (scientific) data, and if you can live
 with an external C program, consider using gnuplot

     <http://www.gnuplot.info/

 Millions of scientific papers around the world have been illustrated
 with gnuplot output.

 Use Runtime.exec() to pipe the plot commands and data into gnuplot, or
 just write the data to a file and use gnuplot separately.

 Q8.4 How to draw some graphs in Java?

 Non-trivial graph drawing is a serious business. If you want to do it
 all by yourself, reserve some time and start studying graph drawing
 algorithms. See the question "I need an algorithm for drawing ..." for
 information where to start searching for such algorithms. Then, or in
 parallel, start studying the Java 2D API.

 If you don't want to concern yourself with the algorithm
 implementation, use a graph library like:

     <http://jgrapht.sourceforge.net/
     <http://jung.sourceforge.net/

 Or check if the algorithm used in Sun's GraphLayout applet demo is
 suitable for your purpose. The source comes with every SDK, see the
 directory

         demo/applets/GraphLayout

 in you SDK installation.

 If you can live with an external C tool, give The Dot a try. It is part
 of graphviz at

     <http://www.research.att.com/sw/tools/graphviz/refs.html

 Or, if you don't require a Java solution and if you are on a Unix with
 a complete troff installation, including pic, you can use pic for
 typesetting simple graphs.

 See also: "Q8.9 I need an algorithm for drawing ..."

 Q8.5 I want to write a diagram editor. Where to start?

 Consider using a framework like

     <http://www.jhotdraw.org/
     <http://www.jgraph.com/jgraphpad.html
     <http://gef.tigris.org/

 for a start. You also might want to familiarize yourself with many of
 the design patterns in

         Gamma, E.; Helm, R.; Johnson, R.; Vlissides, J.: Design
         Patterns: Elements of reusable object-oriented Software.
         Addison-Wesley professional computing series. Brian W.
         Kernighan, Consulting Editor. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley,
         1994.

 And (if you manage to find the old publications), the early work on
 UniDraw and IDraw by Vlissides is also interesting (in C++).

 Q8.6 How do I draw lines between JLabels on a JPanel?

 You are apparently trying to draw a graph by using normal widgets to
 draw the nodes of your graph. This is not a good idea. Consider using
 the Java 2D API (nowadays part of J2SE) to draw the complete graph.
 Have a look at java.awt.geom for predefined shapes. Also check out
 Sun's 2D Programmer's Guide.

 Q8.7 How to debug graph painting?

 The best way is probably to use a debugger and step through the
 paint[Component]() method. There is also the rather obscure
 JComponent.setDebugGraphicsOptions() method in Swing. It can be used
 to turn several kinds of debugging output on or off.

 Please note that setDebugGraphicsOptions(0) does not turn debugging off.
 Instead setDebugGraphicsOptions(DebugGraphics.NONE_OPTION) is needed.

 See also: "SECTION 12 - Resources"

 Q8.8 I need to draw a tree. How?

 This seems to be a common homework question, so please have a look at
 the "Which topics are not welcome in the newsgroup?" to understand why
 this answer is intentionally vague.

 If the fixed layout of JTree suits your needs, you could start reading
 the JTree API documentation.

 Or you could use a simple (recursive) algorithm. E.g

         x(node) = K * level(node), and
         y(node) = M * inorder_rank(node).

 gives very ugly trees, but trees. If this doesn't get you started, ask
 your professor or tutor for more hints. Consult your text book about
 (inorder) tree traversal, and consult

     <http://home.earthlink.net/~patricia_shanahan/beginner.html

 Q8.9 I need an algorithm for drawing ...

 First of all, it really helps to know a little bit about math and
 geometry. It also helps to know a little bit about coordinate
 transformations. Then start with the FAQ for

     <news:comp.graphics.algorithms

 which is at

     <http://www.magic-software.com/CgaFaq.pdf

 Q8.10 When I subclass JPanel/JComponent, I need to override paint(),
       right?

 Wrong. You are supposed to override paintComponent(), not paint(). You
 would override paint() only when subclassing Canvas.

 Swing has a slightly different painting model than AWT. Have a look at
 the painting article in TSC. This is highly recommended reading if you
 plan to do any kind of drawing or develop a custom component.

 See also: "SECTION 12 - Resources"

 Q8.11 Why does drawImage() fail when I try to display a loaded image?
       Why are the width and height of my loaded image both zero?

 The image has most likely not finished loading. Use a
 java.awt.MediaTracker to monitor the loading of the image (see the
 MediaTracker API documentation for details and an example).

 Alternatively, use javax.swing.ImageIcon to load the image. It already
 contains the necessary MediaTracker handling.

 Q8.12 How do I resize (zoom in/out) my Graphics?

 First of all, it is best to not touch your original data if the
 resizing is only for display purposes.

 So, if you just want to resize the graphics for display purposes you
 have to work on three areas:

 1. Use an AffineTransform to construct an appropriate transformation
    (see its scale() method).  You can also use the Graphics2D.scale()
    convenience method instead. In both cases, however, you should
    ensure that you reset the Graphics2D object in your paintComponent()
    method to its original transformation before leaving the method.

 2. When you do zooming, it might be handy to not only scale the
    graphics, but to also resize the JPanel on which you are drawing, so
    the JScrollPane in which you have placed the JPanel updates its
    scrollbars accordingly. Be aware, however, that the JPanel size is
    in device coordinate space, while your geometry data is hopefully in
    user coordinate spaces.

         double zf = 1.0;

         public void setZoom(double zf) {
             // better do some sanity check on the
             // zoom factor, too

             this.zf = zf;
             theJPanel.setPreferredSize(baseWidth * zf, baseHeight *zf);
             theJPanel.repaint();
         }

         public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
             super.paintComponent(g);

             //
             // Save the old AffineTransform state of the
             // graphics object. Either by remembering the
             // AffineTransform, or by just working on a
             // copy of the Graphics object.
             //
             // Variant (a): Save the old AffineTransform
             Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D)g;
             AffineTransform orig = g2d.getTransform();
             //
             // Variant (b): use a copy of the Graphics context
             // Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) ((Graphics2D)g).create();

             //
             // Now scale the Graphics context
             //
             g2d.scale(zf, zf);

             // ~~~ Draw graphics here ~~~

             //
             // Reset Graphics state before leaving
             // Variant (a): If old AffineTransform has been saved:
             //              Reset transformation
             g2d.setTransform(orig);
             //
             // Variant (b): If a copy of the graphics was used:
             //              Just destroy copy
             // g2d.dispose();
         }

 3. If you provide some means to select parts of the graphics or
    interact in some other way with the graphics using the mouse, you
    have to scale (divide by the zoom factor) the mouse event
    coordinates, too. You could also use an AffineTransform with the
    inverse scaling for this, but for the simple linear scaling used for
    zooming, dividing the coordinates will do.

    The easiest is probably to do this calculation in the event handler
    which is supposed to provide the interaction with the graphics.
    Sometimes it is suggested to use the glass pane to intercept all
    mouse events of the JPanel and transform them before forwarding.

 Q8.13 Where do I find the icons which are used by Swing
       itself?

 Most of them are hard-coded, and a lot of them don't have any
 documented public API and are hidden in the PLAF's implementation. Some
 can be found in javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicIconFactory, the ones for
 Metal can be found in javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalIconFactory.

 In general, most PLAFs list their icons in the UIDefaults.

 See also: "Q10.4 How do I get all the UIDefaults, and what do they mean?"

 Q8.14 Where do I find typical application icons?

 See also: "12.3 Icons"

 SECTION 9 - Fonts
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 See also: "Q6.4.2 How to use several different fonts (styles, sizes) in
                   one [J]TextArea?"
           "Q3.3 I have arranged all my widgets nicely on a window. Then I
                 changed the OS / Java version / font / PLAF. Now
everything is
                 broken. What's going on?"
           "Q10.3 How do I change a color/font/etc. globally for an
                  application?"
           "Q10.4 How do I get all the UIDefaults, and what do they mean?"

 Q9.1 Which Fonts can I use? Can I use font <xyz?

 See the API documentation of the Font class for a start:

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/api/java/awt/Font.html

 Q9.2 How to turn on text antialiasing in Swing?

 First of all, people have reported mixed results with using
 antialiasing in Swing. The improvement is sometimes not as expected,
 depending on the font, font size (it works better with larger fonts),
 font renderer in use, and e.g. monitor resolution. So it is best to
 test the results on the target platform, and make it a configurable
 option.

 1) Before Java 1.5:

    Turning text antialiasing on for one particular component is
    relatively simple, turning it on for all components of a GUI is a
    nightmare.

    To turn antialiasing on for a component you have to subclass and
    override paintComponent():

     public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
         Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;

         g2.setRenderingHint(
             RenderingHints.KEY_TEXT_ANTIALIASING,
             RenderingHints.VALUE_TEXT_ANTIALIAS_ON
         );

         g2.setRenderingHint(
             RenderingHints.KEY_RENDERING,
             RenderingHints.VALUE_RENDER_QUALITY
         );

         super.paintComponent(g2);
         }
     }

    To turn antialiasing on for a whole GUI you would have to subclass
    all used components the way described above, and then only use this
    components. Or use a PLAF which does this for you. Such PLAFs are
    e.g.

     <http://smoothmetal.sourceforge.net/
     <http://wraplf.l2fprod.com/

 2) Since Java 1.5

    It is now possible to globally turn on text antialiasing by setting
    the system property "swing.aatext" to "true" on the command line.

    The pre Java 1.5 methods still work, too.

 Q9.3 Why do some of my characters get displayed as squares?

 1) If this happens in a GUI

    Java didn't find matching a visual representation (glyph) in the
    font you used. In such a case Java uses a square to denote that it
    doesn't know how to draw the character.

    The fix depends on what you intended to do:

 1a) If you indeed intended to display the character in the GUI, then
     you need to find and use a font which contains the glyph for the
     character.

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/intl/font.html

     has some information which glyphs can be found in Java 1.5's
     bundled physical fonts.

     The documents at

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/guide/intl/fontprop.html
     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/intl/fontconfig.html

     describes how Java's font lookup happens, and how this can be
     changed on VM level. However, using java.awt.createFont() is much
     more preferable than requiring an end-user to change the VM
     configuration.

 1b) If you didn't intend to display the character, then you probably
     felt victim to the fact that many Java widgets don't interpret
     control characters like new-lines in Strings.

     For example JLabel or JButton do not do this. Instead, they just
     try to render the character with a glyph. But usually a font
     doesn't contain glyphs for control character code points.   So you
     get squares instead.

     If you need to get control characters interpreted, then in AWT you
     would need to implement an own widget (based on a Canvas), which
     lays-out the text as desired. In Swing you can use HTML formating
     for most widgets:

         // Does not work:
         JLabel jl = new JLabel("Line1\nLine2");

         // Use this instead:
         JLabel jl = new JLabel("<htmlLine1<brLine2</html");

     If you don't want the characters at all, you have to remove them
     from the String.

 2) You tried to print to the text console

    This is not a GUI related issue. Most likely the console works with
    a character set which doesn't contain that character at all.

 SECTION 10 - Other Common Questions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Q10.1 My GUI has rendering problems when the JMenu opens over my
       top Panel ...

 Swing (JMenu) and AWT (Panel) components do not mix well.

 See

     <http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/mixing/index.html

 for things you have to pay attention to.

 Q10.2 Can I use Swing for Applets?

 You can, if you know that the users of your applets have a Java version
 installed which supports Swing. Swing was first shipped with Java 1.2
 (it was available earlier as a separate download). Java 1.2 is an old
 Java version. You will most probably not develop a Swing application
 with it. As a consequence, it is likely that your users need browsers
 which support even later Java versions and match your development
 version.

 Sun provides the Java plug-in in the JRE to update the legacy Java
 versions of some browsers to a current Java version. Your applet users
 might have to download and install the JRE with the plug-in
 separately:

 Programmers:

     <http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/index.jsp

 Consumers:

     <http://www.java.com/

 Alternatively, you should consider to provide your Swing program as an
 application, not an applet, and use Java Web Start to deploy it:

     <http://java.sun.com/products/javawebstart/

 JavaWebStart is nowadays also a part of the JRE.

 Q10.3 How do I change a color/font/etc. globally for an
       application?

 1) In case you are using Metal, the best way is to implement an own
    javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalTheme, and set it via
    javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel.setCurrentTheme().

 2) For other PLAFs, there is no common API. You can either try to
    figure out some undocumented feature, or use the also undocumented
    UIDefaults, from which most of the common PLAFs take definitions for
    colors, fonts, etc.

 See also: "Q10.4 How do I get all the UIDefaults, and what do they mean?"

 Q10.4 How do I get all the UIDefaults, and what do they mean?

 The UIDefaults contain all kinds of undocumented default settings for
 the current PLAF, like colors, icons, fonts, etc.  One can guess the
 meaning of most of them from the key name, but the keys change for
 different PLAFs and VM implementations.

 UIManager.getDefaults() returns the UIDefaults. The returned data type
 implements, among other things, the Map interface. One can iterate over
 this map and display all key/value pairs. There are several small
 programs out there doing exactly this, e.g. a popular one is
 ShowUIDefaults.java

 Q10.5 Why is Swing so slow?

 Swing is slow in the hands of unexperienced GUI programmers. In fact,
 it has become a common excuse among these to blaim Swing for their own
 shortcommings. Shortcommings which for example include a lack of
 understanding of the Swing event model or of the repainting mechanism.
 Abusing a layout manager is also very popular.

 See also: "Q3.1 My GUI freezes or doesn't update. What to do?"
           "Q3.2 How do I update the GUI from another thread?"
           "Q3.4 My graphics on a Canvas/JPanel/JComponent, etc. gets
                 corrupted, or I get a null pointer exception when trying
                 to draw. How can I avoid this?"
           "Q4.2 What is the Swing single-threading issue?"

 SECTION 11 - Non-GUI Questions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Q11.1 How do I do a text/console UI in Java?

 Java is not well-suited for non-graphical user interfaces.  You need
 platform specific libraries for any sophisticated text UI.

 The most common ones are based on the Unix curses/ncurses library, like
 JCurses:

     <http://sourceforge.net/projects/javacurses/

 Note: there happen to be several different libraries out there by the
 name JCurses or jcurses which are not entirely compatible.

 Another possibility is charva, a text-base UI toolkit on Linux mimicking
 the Swing API:

     <http://www.pitman.co.za/projects/charva/index.html

 Q11.2 How can I do this JavaScript thing on my web site?

 Java is not JavaScript. Try

     <news:comp.lang.javascript

 or another suitable JavaScript newsgroup.

 Q11.3 I want to make ...

 Programmers usually don't "make" things, they program things :-)
 (precise language is important in programming). The first step to
 program something is to learn a programming language like Java. Then
 you need some knowledge about algorithms and data structures.  For Java
 you also throw in some object-oriented concepts and principles. But
 that's not all. There are many more things to learn, and you can't rush
 things. See

     <http://www.norvig.com/21-days.html

 Since this is the comp.lang.java.gui FAQ, you should also know that it
 takes specific skills to develop good or excellent graphical user
 interfaces. GUI programming is not just about stirring some widgets
 together. It is about good taste, a devotion to details, some knowledge
 about color choices, font styles, human-computer-interaction (HCI),
 style guides, etc. pp. Especially, Java GUI programming is not HTML
 "programming".

 In short, if you are in a rush to "make" something, consider something
 simpler than Java and its GUI toolkits.

 SECTION 12 - Resources
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 There are many good on-line resources regarding Java GUI programming
 out there. The following list is limited by intention to resources
 which get recommended often on c.l.j.g, including resources from
 regulars.

 12.1 Sun's Java Web Site

 * Sun's Swing learning by example tutorial (previously the Example
   Tutorial, and before that the Quick-Start Tutorial):

     <http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/learn/index.html

 * Sun's complete Swing Tutorial:

     <http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/index.html

 * The courses at

     <http://java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/GUI/

 * Sun's Swing Connection (TSC) (Swing developer's site):

     <http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/index.html

  With the TSC article index (Swing architecture, Swing and threads,
  painting architecture, etc.):

     <http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/

  Note: Sun is doing some restructuring of the TSC site. Stuff is moved
  back and forth between http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/ and
  http://www.javadesktop.org/tsc/. If something is missing on one site
  you might want to check the other.

 12.2 Other Sun Sites

 There are some GUI articles (some of them dated) at:

     <http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/GUI/

 12.3 Icons

 It is suggested to check the licenses of each icon collection before
 using them in any products.

 Sun's well hidden set of Icons for Swing's Metal LnF:

     <http://java.sun.com/developer/techDocs/hi/repository/

 More icons:

     <http://sourceforge.net/projects/icon-collection/
     (the link to javalobby.org on that page is broken)

     The Ximian Open-Office icons (very nice):
     <http://developer.ximian.com/themes/icons/ooo-icons.html

     Gnome icons:
     <http://tigert.gimp.org/gnome/gnome-stock/

     SVG BlueSphere Icon Theme:
     <http://svgicons.sourceforge.net/

     KDE Icons:
     <http://www.buzzard.org.uk/jonathan/kde-icons.html
     <http://www.kde-look.org/

 12.4 Miscellaneous Examples, Tips and Tricks

 A collection of examples for doing nice things with Swing components
 (some are a little bit outdated):

     <http://www.physci.org/codes/tame/

     Originally from

     <http://www2.gol.com/users/tame/swing/examples/SwingExamples.html

     which is now off-line.

 Christian Kaufhold's Java and Swing info (including JTable info):

     <http://www.chka.de/

 Jeanette's notes (including JTable remarks):

     <http://www.mycgiserver.com/~Kleopatra/swing/swingentry.html

 Marco Schmidt's Java resource page (Java imaging information)

     <http://schmidt.devlib.org/java/

 Karsten Lentsch's company web page:

     <http://www.jgoodies.com/

 12.5 Style Guides

 Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines:

     <http://java.sun.com/products/jlf/ed2/book/index.html

 Java Look and Feel Design Guidelines: Advanced Topics:

     <http://java.sun.com/products/jlf/at/book/index.html

 12.6 SDK Documentation

 GUI Information in the SDK documentation is commonly overlooked, but
 worth some reading:

 See your local SDK installation, or

 Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT)

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/awt/index.html

 Swing

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/swing/index.html

 2D Graphics and Imaging

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/2d/index.html

 Image I/O

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/imageio/index.html

 Print Service

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/jps/index.html

 Input Method Framework

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/imf/index.html

 Accessibility

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/access/index.html

 Drag-and-Drop data

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/dragndrop/index.html

 Swing Examples in the SDK:

   See the directory demo/jfc in your Java SDK installation.

 12.7 More Swing

 Swing class-hierarchy chart

     <http://www.holub.com/goodies/java.swing.html

 jGuru Swing FAQ

     <http://www.jguru.com/faq/Swing

 CodeGuru Swing Examples

     <http://www.codeguru.com/java/Swing/index.shtml

 12.8 Online Magazines

 JavaWorld has regular GUI articles. The magazine closed shop on
 2004-01-02, but was re-launched March 2004.

     <http://www.javaworld.com/

 12.9 Java 2D API

 The Programmer's Guide

     <http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/2d/spec/j2d-bookTOC.html

     See also the other SDK documentation.

 The 2D Tutorial (a light introduction, avoids the tough stuff):

     <http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/2d/index.html

 Sample code

     See the demo/jfc directory of your SDK installation. Same as:

     <http://java.sun.com/products/java-media/2D/samples/suite/index.html

 12.10 Java 3D API

 There is a separate newsgroup. see

     <news:comp.lang.java.3d
     <http://groups.google.com/groups?group=comp.lang.java.3d

 12.11 General Java

 The Java Tutorial:

     <http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/

 All kinds of tutorials:

     <http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/onlineTraining/

 Roedy's Java Glossary:

     <http://www.mindprod.com/jgloss/jgloss.html

 12.12 More?

 Q12.12.1 But I need more!

 Look at the source code. Every SDK comes with the source code of the
 public parts of the API. The source code is packed in a file called
 src.zip or src.jar (older SDKs), usually right in the top level
 directory of your SDK installation.

 Also, learn how to use a search engine like

     <http://www.google.com

 SECTION 13 - Improvement Suggestions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Please mail suggestions, corrections, updates, etc. to the author
 "cljg_faq" at the host "gmx.de". Your "Subject:" line must contain the
 string

         [cljg]

 somewhere in the line, including the square brackets. Otherwise your
 mail will be discarded automatically. In addition, the address is
 heavily spam-protected. So if you mail from a spam-invested network,
 there is little chance to reach the author. Your alternative is to post
 to c.l.j.g.

 If you suggest a new entry, please also provide the answer, not only
 the question.

 SECTION 14 - Acknowledgments
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 This FAQ contains contributions and help from:

 Andrew Thompson, David Postill, Manish Hatwalne, Hiwa, Jeanette.

*Places you MUST see as a Beginner*

If you are learning Java and have a reliable internet connection,
having a look at these places is a must :

For everything Java:
http://java.sun.com
http://java.net

Excellent IDEs:

Netbeans - www.netbeans.org
Eclipse - www.eclipse.org
IntelliJ IDEA - www.intellij.net
JCreator Pro - www.jcreator.com

For libraries (jars) :
http://jars.com

For articles, links, blogs, reviews:
http://theserverside.com

For source code:
http://javaboutique.internet.com/javasource/
http://www.planet-source-code.com/
http://www.thefreecountry.com/sourcecode/java.shtml

If you want to read and write XML files in fewer lines of code:
http://dom4j.org

If you want to build a lot of java files together and do not prefer and
IDE- Ant:
http://ant.apache.org
(If you haven't used Ant, your life as a Java programmer is poor and
without much value!)

If you want the biggest and the best for free:
http://apache.org

If you want servlets and JSP - Tomcat:
http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat/

Java docs of everything:
http://www.jdocs.com/

Everything of Javadoc:
http://java.sun.com/j2se/javadoc/writingdoccomments
http://filia.uni.lodz.pl/mocny/doc/j2sdk/docs/tooldocs/solaris/javadoc.html
http://barney.gonzaga.edu/java/tooldocs/javadoc/standard-doclet.htm

For help if you get stuck:

http://forum.java.sun.com/

and

of course, right here: http://groups.google.com/

Google groups WILL give you your answers.

Sun Java forums give you answers within a day or two but you have to
register (2-minute process, but well worth it - once people start
knowing you, you get more and more help - you get help even if you are
new - that is what forums are for!)