Could this be done better
I have mostly programmed back-ends. But I now want also to do some
front-end programming.
I wrote the following simple program. It does nothing useful, it just
displays a description in different colours with the colour appended
to the description.
I was just wondering if this could be done better. Especially
???updateColour???. First I did not removed the text, but then I could see
the colour changing before the text was changed. This way I find more
pleasing and I do not notice that the text disappears.
import java.awt.*;
import java.util.*;
import javax.swing.*;
@SuppressWarnings("serial")
public class ColourCycling extends JFrame {
// public functions
public ColourCycling() {
java.util.Timer colourTimer = new java.util.Timer();
getContentPane().setBackground(background);
setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
label.setFont(new Font("serif", Font.BOLD, 25));
add(label);
pack();
setSize(getWidth(), 3 * getHeight());
label.setBackground(background);
updateColour(getCurrentColour());
colourTimer.schedule(new SwitchColour(), delay, delay);
setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
setTitle(description);
setVisible(true);
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new ColourCycling();
}
// private classes
private class Colour {
// public
public Colour(Color color, String description) {
this.color = color;
this.description = description;
}
public Color getColor() {
return color;
}
public String getDescription() {
return description;
}
// private
private Color color;
private String description;
}
private class SwitchColour extends TimerTask {
public void run() {
updateColour(getNextColour());
}
}
//private functions
private Colour getCurrentColour() {
return colours[currentColour];
}
private Colour getNextColour() {
currentColour = (currentColour + 1) % colours.length;
return getCurrentColour();
}
private void updateColour(Colour newColour) {
label.setText("");
label.setForeground(newColour.getColor());
label.setText(description + " : " + newColour.getDescription());
}
// private variables
private Color background = Color.lightGray;
private Colour[] colours = new Colour[] {
new Colour(Color.blue, "Blue"),
new Colour(Color.red, "Red"),
new Colour(Color.orange, "Orange"),
new Colour(Color.yellow, "Yellow"),
new Colour(Color.green, "Green"),
new Colour(Color.cyan, "Cyan"),
new Colour(Color.magenta, "Magenta"),
new Colour(new Color(0x9C, 0x5D, 0x52), "Brown"),
};
private int currentColour = 0;
private int delay = 4000;
private String description = "JTextArea Color Change Example";
private JLabel label = new JLabel(description + " : " + "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX");
}
--
Cecil Westerhof
Senior Software Engineer
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/cecilwesterhof