Current Page: NeXtMidas Training Macros - Part 2 (Graphics) Intro to Graphics Widget Toolkits
| Widget Toolkits: Graphical buttons, menus, test-entry boxes, etc. are all called Widgets. Since the primary use of widgets in NeXtMidas and X-Midas is to control the application, widgets are commonly nicknamed Controls. Groups of similarly-designed widgets are often grouped together in a Toolkit. There are three common toolkits used with Java. AWT (Abstract Windowing Toolkit) This was the first Java toolkit created by Sun Microsystems. Included with all Java releases (but support for AWT has been limited since Java 5). Swing This was the second Java toolkit created by Sun Microsystems. Supports a Pluggable Look and Feel allowing a Swing Widget to look and act like widgets from other toolkits, without altering any code. SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit) This is a rival toolkit that was started by IBM and is maintained by the Eclipse people. SWT does not provide a Pluggable Look and Feel the way Swing does. SWT is not part of Java and requires a separate OS-specific download. NeXtMidas uses a combination of AWT and Swing.