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From: Cecil Westerhof <Cecil@decebal.nl>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer
Subject: Could this be done better
Organization: Decebal Computing
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Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 12:16:42 +0100
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Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:30390

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