[.ca] The JFC Swing Tutorial: A Guide to Constructing GUIs (ISBN 0201914670)

From Amazon.com:
With the arrival of Sun's Swing/JFC classes, Java developers can create user interfaces that look great and perform just as well as "native" interfaces. The JFC Swing Tutorial: A Guide to Constructing GUIs provides a hard copy of Sun's popular online tutorial for Swing/JFC development. Its numerous code examples and clear presentation style make this title a fine choice for mastering the ins and outs of today's Swing. Owing to its Web heritage, digestibility is perhaps this book's most notable feature. Short sections on virtually every topic in Swing programming help bring the reader up to speed with this UI library. Early sections look at getting started and the organization of classes in both applets and applications, as well as useful high-level classes like frames and scroll panes. When it comes to such basic Swing components as text, label, and image controls, Swing beginners will appreciate the concise description of each component along with necessary APIs. More advanced material, such as optimizing repainting of Swing controls and techniques for more efficient tables, will be useful to any Swing developer. Most computer books use either code excerpts or full-length programs. For the main text of The JFC Swing Tutorial, short code examples are the norm, but with over 300 pages of complete programs in an appendix, this book will also please those who appreciate more complete examples. Efficient and thorough, this book succeeds in making JFC/Swing enjoyable while imparting a good deal of necessary information. Armed with this book, any intermediate to advanced Java programmer can make sense of today's Swing with a minimum of effort. --Richard Dragan Topics covered: JFC basics, compiling and running JFC programs, JFC applets and applications, pluggable look-and-feel options, layout managers, event listeners and event handling, graphics, images, animation and painting, threads, JComponent, frames and top-level containers, basic and advanced JFC components, tables, trees, models and custom editors, accessibility APIs, and converting code from AWT to JFC.

Very good book:
I have little experience with AWT and Swing. I got this book to finish my SCJD. The book is excelent reference and tutorial. I like the way the book structured. First chapter it gives an overview of every compnent in Swing, then in the rest of the book it explains these component in details.

The 2nd edition is a great book...:
Target Audience Java developers who want to learn to develop graphical applications using the Swing classes Contents This book is part of the Sun tutorial series, and concentrates on the Swing classes of the language. The book is divided into the following chapters: Before You Start; Learning Swing By Example; Using Swing Components; Laying Out Components within a Container; Writing Event Listeners; Performing Custom Painting; Component Reference; Layout Manager Reference; Other Swing Features Reference; Event Listeners References; Troubleshooting Reference; Index Review Most of the coding I do in Java involves background agents that don't involve any sort of a user interface. But that's not to say that I haven't wanted to put a front end on some of my routines and allow for some user interaction. In order to do that, I need to learn more about how to use the Java GUI classes. This book, The JFC Swing Tutorial, is definitely what I need. The book is a nice blend of tutorial and reference guide. The first six chapters are definitely tutorial in nature, with a number of examples and things you are asked to try and work through. At the end of each of those chapters, you'll find a series of questions and exercises that will allow you to assess your understanding of the material. Starting in chapter seven, the book moves more towards a reference manual, but not in the typical "here's the documentation" format. Each reference section has a series of "How To..." topics that give you more detailed information and examples about that feature. For instance, the formatted text field section has a demo of that feature, instructions on how to work with features in the JFormattedTextField class, and an API chart of the related classes and specific methods in JFormattedTextField. The blend of information and examples helps you to bridge the gap between theoretical and practical use. The only "complaint" that one might have about this book is that much of the information can be found online at the Sun Java site. To that I say, "so what?" When I'm looking up a quick answer to something and I don't have my library available to me, online references are great. But when I'm learning a new skill, give me a book that I can carry around, mark up, and have open in front of me at the keyboard. It's how I work best. Conclusion This is a very complete and well-written volume on how to use the Swing GUI classes. If you need to learn how to move your Java programming in a graphical direction, you'll like this book.

If you know how to use it you'll be fine.:
This book is good and bad at the same time. It's not something I would recommend for someone trying to learn swing. It has some good stuff in it to read but it is not a book to read and learn from. It's more like a reference. It's order, well it has no order let me put it that way. Things are all over the place. At the end of the day even if you want to use this book you should just look it up online. It's available on Sun's site. It's easier to read it online since it has links jumping around from subject to subject and section to section. Hope that helped.

Great reference for beginners, but...:
When I started building GUIs in Java, I found this book to be invaluable. However, most -- if not all -- of the content of this book appears to be available online at java.sun.com. If you are new to Java and developing in an environment where you can't get to the Internet or you prefer hardcopy material then this is a great buy.

Good book, but you can find the same information online:
I do use this book as a reference, but I was dissapointed to see that all of the material and lessons are available on line for free.