Java 2D: Graphics in Java 2
Anyone who has even lightly ventured into developing detailed graphical programs with the Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT) has quickly realized that the capabilities of the Graphics object are rather limited—not surprisingly, since Sun developed the AWT over a short period when moving Java from embedded applications to the World Wide Web. Shortcomings of the AWT include limited available fonts, lines drawn with a single-pixel width, shapes painted only in solid colors, and the inability to properly scale drawings prior to printing.
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JAVA SWING GUI TUTORIAL
AWT relies on ”peer-based” rendering to achieve platform independence. But subtle difference in platforms resulted in inconsistent look-and-feel, and platform-dependent bugs. Swing avoids these problems by using a non-peer-based approach, with the result it may be slower than AWT. To recover the look-and-feel of each platform (Windows, Motif, etc), it allows programs to specify the look-and-feel. It also has a new look-and-feel, called ”Metal”. Note that AWT is not deprecated as a result of Swing.
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