This second edition of Java Swing thoroughly covers all the features available in Java 2 SDK 1.3 and 1.4. More than simply a reference, this new edition takes a practical approach. It is a book by developers for developers, with hundreds of useful examples, from beginning level to advanced, covering every component available in Swing. Whether you're a seasoned Java developer or just trying to find out what Java can do, you'll find Java Swing, 2nd edition an indispensable guide.
When Java was first released, its user interface facilities were a significant weakness. The Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) was part of the JDK from the beginning, but it really wasn't sufficient to support a complex user interface. It supported everything you could do in an HTML form and provided free-standing frames, menus, and a few other objects, but you'd be hard-pressed to implement an application as complex as Quicken or Lotus Notes. AWT also had its share of portability problems; it relied heavily on the runtime platform's native user interface components, and it wasn't always possible to hide differences in the way these components behaved.
JDK 1.1 fixed a number of problems—most notably, it introduced a new event model that was much more efficient and easier to use—but it didn't make any major additions to the basic components. We got a ScrollPane and a PopupMenu, but that was about it. Furthermore, AWT still relied on the native components and therefore continued to have portability problems.
