What is the difference between Abstract Widget Toolkit (AWT) and Swing ?

October 28, 2007 · Filed Under Java SE Interview questions, Placement Questions 



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The original design goal of the graphical user interface (GUI) library in Java 1.0 was to allow the programmer to build a GUI that looks good on all platforms. That goal was not achieved.

Instead, the Java 1.0 Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) produced a GUI that looked equally mediocre on all systems. In addition, it was restrictive; you could use only four fonts and you couldn’t access any of the more sophisticated GUI elements that exist in your operating system. The Java 1.0 AWT programming model is also awkward and non-object-oriented. The situation improved with the Java 1.1 AWT event model, which takes a much clearer, object-oriented approach, along with the addition of JavaBeans, a component programming model that is oriented toward the easy creation of visual programming environments. Java 2 (JDK 1.2) finished the transformation away from the old Java 1.0 AWT by essentially replacing everything with the Java Foundation Classes (JFC), the GUI portion of which is called “Swing.” These are a rich set of easy-to-use, easy-to-understand JavaBeans that can be dragged and dropped (as well as hand programmed) to create a GUI that you can (finally) be satisfied with.

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