Swing (Java): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:10, 9 July 2004

Revision as of 17:07, 14 July 2004

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==History==

The Internet Foundation Classes (IFC) were a [[graphics library]] for the [[Java programming language]] originally developed by [[Netscape Communications Corporation]] and first released on [[December 16]] [[1996]].

Swing supersedes and extends the Java [[AWT]] library.

User interface components in [[AWT]], the basic [[graphics library]] provided with the [[Java platform]], were rendered and controlled by native peer components specific to each operating system. By contrast, components in IFC were rendered and controlled directly by platform independent Java code. These components are often described as lightweight because they do not require allocation of native resources in the operating system's windowing toolkit.

On [[April 2]] [[1997]], [[Sun Microsystems]] and [[Netscape Communications Corporation]] announced their intention to combine IFC with other techonlogies to form the [[Java Foundation Classes]]. In addition to the lightweight widgets originally provided by IFC, Swing introduced a mechanism that allowed the [[look and feel]] of every component in an application to be altered without making substantial changes to the application code. The introduction of support for a pluggable [[look and feel]] allowed Swing components to emulate the appearance of native components while still retaining the benefits of platform independence.

==See also==