Creating an Application

The expression "look and feel" is used often when describing interface programming. As you might have guessed, it describes how a graphical user interface looks and feels to a user. Look and feel is something that becomes relevant in Java with the introduction of Swing.

This feature offers the most visually dramatic change from the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT). Swing lets you create a Java program with an interface that uses the style of the native operating system, such as Windows or Solaris, or a new style that has been dubbed Metal, which is unique to Java.

Swing components, unlike their predecessors in previous versions of Java, are implemented entirely in Java. This makes them more compatible across different platforms ...

Get Sams Teach Yourself Java 2 in 21 Days, Second Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.