Latest News from Michael Birken

Coding with Java Swing

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 16:30:00 EST

Even for many seasoned developers, Swing code can be notoriously difficult to organize. Where is the right place to put parsing and validation logic? How do you prevent those threading issues that cause lockups or repainting glitches? Is it possible to unit test GUI logic? Can the code somehow be shared with other user-interfaces, like a web front-end? If these questions sound familiar, the solutions presented here may revolutionize the way you code with Swing.

Delegates Reloaded: Walking the Path

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 11:00:00 EDT

The function pointer, a powerful concept in the C and C++ programming languages, has no direct equivalent in Java. No syntax exists to pass the address of a method to a JButton, for instance, that links it with pressing the button. Instead, Java promotes the use of anonymous inner classes, like this one...

Restoring the "Delegate" Concept To Java

Mon, 11 Apr 2005 00:00:00 EDT

Back in October 1996, in an attempt to eliminate the need for this bloated syntax, Microsoft introduced an object-oriented method pointer into J++ called a 'delegate.' Sun Microsystems, citing the delegate as language pollution, sued Microsoft a year later for violating its Java license agreement. Had the delegate become part of Java, would Swing programming be easier? Could that technique have solved many of the Swing threading headaches that we're faced with today?

Meat Fighter

Sat, 01 Mar 2003 00:00:00 EST

If you have a bounty of creative energy and way too much time on your hands, why not explore the new Java 1.4 APIs by creating a video game. That's exactly what I did when I produced a parody of Street Fighter II called Meat Fighter.