Re: Simple Java Question
adric22 wrote:
This may sound like a simple question, but I can't get a simple answer
anywhere. I'm a long-time programmer. I've used Assembler, Commodore
BASIC, Pascal, and C++. I've decided to stop using C++ and learn
Java so that my applications are cross-platform from now on.
However, I'm having the most difficult time finding information on how
to do what I want to do. I would rather program using the command-
line compiler if at all possible because the program I want to write
is a game and will essentially only be needing to plot pixels on the
screen and read input from the keyboard and mouse. Granted, I may
eventually want to write text on the screen or some basic shapes, but
most of what I'm going to be doing will just be plotting a screen-full
of pixels.
Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to do this. Everytime I lookup
info on the web or follow tutorials they are all about creating text
boxes, takling to databases, handing strings, etc.. And on the rare
occasion I find some source code that looks like it may be what I
want, I try to compile it but get tons of errors about missing files,
and especially things telling me that the library I'm trying to use
has been "depricated" Essentially saying the code is obsolete. Also
everytime I find something that looks useful it turns out to be
designed for a web-browser aplett and not an actually application that
you can run on your desktop.
I use a Mac primarily these days so that is the environment I'm in,
but I don't think that makes much difference.
if anyone can point me in the right direction of a web page, or some
modern source code that just shows how to open a window of a specified
size and plot a pixel at x,y coordinates in whatever color I want...
that would be great!
Start by learning Swing/AWT. You can create your own JComponent
subclass, which overrides the paintComponent method. Note that you may
be use to "active rendering", which is different than the standard
rendering model in Java. With active rendering, you decide *when* to
draw to the screen. In Java's model, your code is asked to perform the
task of redrawing the section of the screen.
It is possible to use Active Rendering in Java, but you have to jump a
couple of loops first, and you loose a bit of built-in flexibility.
--
Daniel Pitts' Tech Blog: <http://virtualinfinity.net/wordpress/>