Introducing the AWT: Working with Windows, Graphics, and Text

CHAPTER 25

Introducing the AWT: Working with Windows, Graphics, and Text

The Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) was Java’s first GUI framework, and it has been part of Java since version 1.0. It contains numerous classes and methods that allow you to create windows and simple controls. The AWT was introduced in Chapter 23, where it was used in several short, example applets. This chapter begins a more detailed examination. Here, you will learn how to create and manage windows, manage fonts, output text, and utilize graphics. Chapter 26 describes various AWT controls, such as scroll bars and push buttons. It also explains further aspects of Java’s event handling mechanism. Chapter 27 introduces the AWT’s imaging subsystem.

It is important to state at the outset that you will seldom create GUIs based solely on the AWT because more powerful GUI frameworks (Swing and JavaFX) have been developed for Java. Despite this fact, the AWT remains an important part of Java. To understand why, consider the following.

At the time of this writing, the framework that is most widely used is Swing. Because Swing provides a richer, more flexible GUI framework than does the AWT, it is easy to jump to the conclusion that the AWT is no longer relevant—that it has been fully superseded by Swing. This assumption is, however, false. Instead, an understanding of the AWT is still important because the AWT underpins Swing, with many AWT classes being used either directly or indirectly by Swing. As a result, a solid knowledge of the AWT is still required to use Swing effectively.

Java’s newest GUI framework is JavaFX. It is anticipated that, at some point in the future, JavaFX will replace Swing as Java’s most popular GUI. Even when this occurs, however, much legacy code that relies on Swing (and thus, the AWT) will still need to be maintained for some time to come. Finally, for some types of small programs (especially small applets) that make only minimal use of a GUI, using the AWT may still be appropriate. Therefore, even though the AWT constitutes Java’s oldest GUI framework, a basic working knowledge of its fundamentals is still important today.

Although a common use of the AWT is in applets, it is also used to create stand-alone windows that run in a GUI environment, such as Windows. For the sake of convenience, most of the examples in this chapter are contained in applets. The easiest way to run them is with the applet viewer. A few examples demonstrate the creation of stand-alone, windowed programs, which can be executed directly.

One last point before beginning: The AWT is quite large and a full description would easily fill an entire book. Therefore, it is not possible to describe in detail every AWT class, method, or instance variable. However, this and the following chapters explain the basic techniques needed to use the AWT. From there, you will be able to explore other parts of the AWT on your own. You will also be ready to move on to Swing.