🚀 go-pugleaf

Ken:

Generally, if you've got an awt item in your UI it'll block the painting of such
lightweight items as you get from JFC.  This ranges from every single item in the panel to
dropdowns that hit the heavyweight button below them onscreen.

This is one of the big differences between awt and jfc and when jfc came out there was
quite a bit written on the topic.  Your best bet is to go to the javasoft site and search
on "heavyweight".  You'll get quite a few docs and background pieces, etc.

The basic rule of thumb is that you don't mix and match.  It's not as if a single
heavyweight widget will kill all the painting, but it will certainly block it if the
painting would happen in or around it's "space".  A couple years ago, when this all was
really new, the most common side effect people would post about was that they'd see all the
components from all the pages in a tab control the first time it was painted.

The differences between IE and IE on different platforms (or the same platform with
different IE versions) are more than enough to cause pain.  Add in the same types of issues
for NS and you start to see why Applets really aren't that viable in many situations.  Why
add caring about AppletViewer to that mix? (Though the fact that one does applets would
indicate a mashchistic tendency with a subtle hatred for ones customers as well <g>).

-Rich

Ken Warner wrote:

> Hi Rich,
>
> I would like to focus on what you call "popups" because that seems like
> an important detail that needs expansion.
>
> By "popup" do you mean the painting of the tooltip on the screen?  And when
> you say, "heavyweight component in your UI that is masking your ability to see them."
> Explain with a little more detail what you mean please.  Do you mean that if the mouse
> is hovering over a Swing component, the tooltip won't show if there is an AWT container
> somewhere at a deeper Z level.   Or do you mean that an AWT component anywhere
> else in the applet will cause the tooltip to somehow not be painted?
>
> This is a new an interesting detail to me.
>
> BTW: I have been knocking my head against the differences between IE and NN
> for over a year now and have intimate and deep knowledge of the pain you speak of.
> My applet looks one way in the appletviewer, another in NN and yet another way in IE.
>
> Arrggghhh!
>
> Rich Wilkman wrote:
>
> > Ken:
> >
> > Josh is mostly correct <g>.
> >
> > Actually, with the exception of JBuilder 3.0 Solaris (first all-java edition) and
> > 3.5, JBuilder has used the version of AppletViewer present in the JDK used by your
> > project.  There was a brief hiatus during the port where AppletTestBed was the only
> > option (hence the problems when trying to run JFC based applets with JDK 1.2), but
> > that was rectified in JB4.
> >
> > In all cases, however, AppletViewer is a waste of time for real testing (in or out
> > of the IDE) once you've got your files laid out.  The main reason being that none of
> > the Browsers have implemented their Applet support to match AppletViewer.  To avoid
> > chasing ghosts, the best advice I can give you is to compile your classes into your
> > staging server location and run from the Browser(s) you need to support.  Once you
> > are satisfied, archive the classes into whichever archive type satisfies all your
> > clients, do another quick round of testing and then move the applet from staging to
> > production.
> >
> > Since none of the Browsers supports JFC in any real way without the Plugin and each
> > Browser still has it's own quirks even when using the Plugin, most of this work
> > really has to be done outside the IDE.  For things like popups you'll inherit all of
> > the base JFC bugs for Applications *and* get the added benefit of some painting
> > decisions made for you by Netscape and Microsoft.
> >
> > A quick thought, though, is that your popups are happening just fine but that there
> > is a heavyweight component in your UI that is masking your ability to see them.
> > Some quick diagnostic printlns would tell you if the code fragment is at least being
> > hit.
> >
> > -Rich
> >
> > Ken Warner wrote:
> >
> > > Absolutly correct ... I won't be using the applet viewer to run the
> > > deployed applet.
> > >
> > > Anyway, I'm told by reliable sources that JBuilder doesn't use the appletviewer.
> > >
> > >      You might try posting the the Sun forums.  The appletviewer has
> > >      nothing
> > >      to do with JBuilder.
> > >
> > >      -Josh
> > >
> > > However, I may want to debug a custom component where I override
> > > the standard tooltips stuff and make my own tooltips stuff.  And then
> > > I'll be using whatever JBuilder uses to run the applet as I go through
> > > the edit-run-debug cycle.  And for that reason I need to know that
> > > when I'm running my applet and not seeing tooltips, it isn't my fault.
> > >
> > > I'm just trying to get my ducks lined up so that I don't chase ghosts.
> > >
> > > Rich Wilkman wrote:
> > >
> > > > Ken:
> > > >
> > > > Probably not, but it's really irrelevant because in the real world you won't
> > > > be using AppletViewer to run the Applet.
> > > >
> > > > -Rich
> > > >
> > > > Ken Warner wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Hi,
> > > > >
> > > > > Had to repost this again and use twice the bandwidth because I violated
> > > > > the sacred rule against
> > > > > crossposting and my previous message was cancelled by the news group
> > > > > Gray Council.
> > > > >
> > > > > I have a Swing applet and I set the tool tip text for a component.  Then
> > > > >
> > > > > I test it by running it from the IDE and it runs in the applet viewer.
> > > > > But
> > > > > when I hover the mouse over the component, the tool tip doesn't show.
> > > > >
> > > > > Does the appletviewer not show tooltips?
> > > > >
> > > > > Environment: JBuilder Pro 4.0; WinNT 4.
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > Ken Warner
> > >
> > > --
> > > Ken Warner
>
> --
> Ken Warner