I was copying a couple of tutorials at zetcode.com http://zetcode.com/t...java2dtutorial/ http://zetcode.com/t...agamestutorial/ to turn them into PDF's so I could read them while I travel and the site mentioned java swing.
I have recently undergone the task to learn java programming as my first language. (please don't ask why java. The back and forth from other posts left me loopy). I will hopefully be making simple apps and/ or 2D games for both PC & Android.
So, do I need or should I learn java swing?
Thanks for any help and enlightenment.
swing or not to swing
Frankly, I'm always of the opinion that learning a language's core libraries is never a bad thing. Even though Swing is now considered obsolete - and is being replaced by JavaFX - much of the methodology (such as the threading model) is largely the same, so knowing one puts you in a good position to understand the other.
However, if you're just going to be doing Java2D and then progress to LWJGL (or JOGL) with no interest in non-game UI development, then I wouldn't worry about it until you find you need it. Most of Swing's issues involve large scale UI applications; it's easy enough to just "wing it" for something like a simple map editor.
However, if you're just going to be doing Java2D and then progress to LWJGL (or JOGL) with no interest in non-game UI development, then I wouldn't worry about it until you find you need it. Most of Swing's issues involve large scale UI applications; it's easy enough to just "wing it" for something like a simple map editor.
Swing is a window toolkit. Basically you use swing to define a window on screen and then add buttons and menus to them and link events in your code to those buttons. Pretty much all desktop applications use some sort of window toolkit.
If your not looking to make desktop applications then you won't really need swing. Most graphics frameworks for games etc can create a window to draw into anyway so you won't need swing for that.
If your not looking to make desktop applications then you won't really need swing. Most graphics frameworks for games etc can create a window to draw into anyway so you won't need swing for that.
I wouldn't touch Swing. Perhaps I would dabble with the basics of making a JFrame and using the drawing utilities. Otherwise it doesn't really give you much value in terms of game making. It's really meant to be used to be making interfaces. I've written a few games with Swing, but they were mostly grid-based(BattleShip, MineSweeper).
I'd recommend the Oracle tutorials and samples - they are very good.
Swing isn't going anywhere, not in the foreseeable future. Whether or not you want to use it depends on what you want to do and how you want to distribute games. Swing is an OK toolkit if you don't ask much. It's main selling point is that it is part of the official Java distribution.
It makes sense to learn Swing, because you can build your tools with it. Since you are just starting out, some games might actually be a lot easier to do in a traditional windowing toolkit, which is probably good for you, as you will gain experience faster. Should you decide to learn and use it, take a look at WindowBuilder- a GUI designer for Swing for eclipse. I haven't used Netbeans, but I've heard it does have a designer for Swing, too.
Swing isn't going anywhere, not in the foreseeable future. Whether or not you want to use it depends on what you want to do and how you want to distribute games. Swing is an OK toolkit if you don't ask much. It's main selling point is that it is part of the official Java distribution.
It makes sense to learn Swing, because you can build your tools with it. Since you are just starting out, some games might actually be a lot easier to do in a traditional windowing toolkit, which is probably good for you, as you will gain experience faster. Should you decide to learn and use it, take a look at WindowBuilder- a GUI designer for Swing for eclipse. I haven't used Netbeans, but I've heard it does have a designer for Swing, too.
I'm at the same point OP is at. Swing is definitely easier to create simple games and learn the code before you move to the harder topics.
Author
Thanks for the replies.
Since I'm just starting out, I don't want to be overwhelmed with learning too many different things at once. I'll just be the tortoise. Not really looking to win the race, just to have fun running it. (yeah, I don't know where that came from)
Anyway, I'll just walk through the tutorials that I have, yes 1 of them does include a short tutorial on swing. But, it seems to go hand in hand with the rest.
Thanks, again.
Since I'm just starting out, I don't want to be overwhelmed with learning too many different things at once. I'll just be the tortoise. Not really looking to win the race, just to have fun running it. (yeah, I don't know where that came from)
Anyway, I'll just walk through the tutorials that I have, yes 1 of them does include a short tutorial on swing. But, it seems to go hand in hand with the rest.
Thanks, again.
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