Use of additional Java libraries (the awt)

Not a mastery factor but a key skill for your dossier project.

Spicing up your Applets

This Applet demonstrates some of the other GUI objects available as part of the awt library. There are also a vast amount of Swing library objects but we don't cover these here (maybe later if there is a demand).

Micro-project

One of the tools of the programmer when analysing a problem and designing a solution is the prototype. This can be as simple as a series of screen drawings (see the prototypes page for further possibilities).

In groups of two or three, choose a potential user (from another group) and get them to verbally describe an information screen they want designed. For example:

• design a screen to collect information about used cars
• design a screen to collect voter registration information
• design a screen to collect computer details
• design a screen for a librarian to record book details
• design a sceen to do multiple choice tests
• design a screen for an online calculator

From your notes of their verbal description , sketch a screen design and get user feedback on how accurate your interpretation of their needs actually was.

Design a non-functional Applet to implement the final, refined screen design . Non-functional means the Applet doesn't have to store any data anywhere or do any processing.

Extra: Try to make a project where you have to learn to look up constructors and methods for new awt objects on the web (as described in Gooey.html ).

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Applications vs Applets

Early on, we briefly introduced the IBIO Classes and showed how to use BlueJ to produce a simple console-based application. This page shows how some of the Applet examples might have appeared as Java applications.

This has the potential to cause great confusion in your mind so you might not want to look at this yet.

Related: [ Java Core | previous Helper methods | next:Applications]

Link to the Gooey Applet.

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