The Origins of Swing

The Origins of Swing

Swing did not exist in the early days of Java. Rather, it was a response to deficiencies present in Java’s original GUI subsystem: the Abstract Window Toolkit. The AWT defines a basic set of controls, windows, and dialog boxes that support a usable, but limited graphical interface. One reason for the limited nature of the AWT is that it translates its various visual components into their corresponding, platform-specific equivalents, or peers. This means that the look and feel of a component is defined by the platform, not by Java. Because the AWT components use native code resources, they are referred to as heavyweight.

The use of native peers led to several problems. First, because of variations between operating systems, a component might look, or even act, differently on different platforms.

This potential variability threatened the overarching philosophy of Java: write once, run anywhere. Second, the look and feel of each component was fixed (because it is defined by the platform) and could not be (easily) changed. Third, the use of heavyweight components caused some frustrating restrictions. For example, a heavyweight component was always opaque.

Not long after Java’s original release, it became apparent that the limitations and restrictions present in the AWT were sufficiently serious that a better approach was needed. The solution was Swing. Introduced in 1997, Swing was included as part of the Java Foundation Classes (JFC). Swing was initially available for use with Java 1.1 as a separate library. However, beginning with Java 1.2, Swing (and the rest of the JFC) was fully integrated into Java.