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Using Atomic Components

The rest of this lesson discusses the atomic components -- components that exist solely to present and perhaps accept information, rather than to contain other components. Although atomic components sometimes are implemented by combining components -- for example, an editable combo box consists of components such as a text field, button, and menu -- these combinations are look-and-feel-specific and thus not to be relied on or tampered with. An atomic component is a single entity, both to the user and to the programmer who uses its API. To see pictures of all the atomic components, go to A Visual Index to the Swing Components.

All the atomic components descend from the JComponent class. Thus, they all support standard features such as tool tips and borders. For more information about the API and features all atomic components support, see The JComponent Class.

The following atomic components exist primarily to get input from the user:

Button, Check Box, Radio Button	Provides easy-to-use, easy-to-customize button implementations.
Combo Box	Provides both uneditable and editable combo boxes -- buttons that bring up menus of choices.
List	Displays a group of items that the user can choose.
Menu	Includes menu bar, menu, and menu item implementations, including specialized menu items such as check box menu items.
Slider	Lets the user choose one of a continuous range of values.
Spinner	Using tiny up/down arrows, lets the user choose from an ordered sequence of items.
Text Field	Lets the user enter a single line of text data.

Some atomic components exist only to give information:

Label	Presents some text, an icon, or both.
Progress Bar	Displays progress toward a goal.
Tool Tip	Brings up a small window that describes another component.

The rest of the atomic components provide formatted information and a way of editing it:

Color Chooser	A UI for choosing colors; can be used inside or outside a dialog.
File Chooser	A UI for choosing files and directories.
Table	An extremely flexible component that displays data in a grid format.
Text Support	A framework including everything from simple text components, such as text fields, to a full-featured, extensible kit for building text editors.
Tree	A component that displays hierarchical data.

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