Applet Basics

Applets differ from the type of programs shown in the preceding chapters. As mentioned in Chapter 1, applets are small programs that are designed for transmission over the Internet and run within a browser. Because Java’s virtual machine is in charge of executing all Java programs, including applets, applets offer a secure way to dynamically download and execute programs over the Web.

Before we begin, it is necessary to explain that there are two general varieties of applets: those based on the Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) and those based on Swing. Both the AWT and Swing support the creation of a graphical user interface (GUI). The AWT is the original GUI toolkit and Swing is Java’s lightweight alternative. This chapter describes ...

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