0N/AMetalworks is a simple Swing-based simulated e-mail
0N/Aapplication. It shows off several features of Swing, including
0N/AJInternalFrame, JTabbedPane, JFileChooser, JEditorPane, and
0N/AJRadioButtonMenuItem. Metalworks is optimized to work with the
0N/AJava look and feel (codenamed "Metal") and shows use of several
0N/Afeatures, such as themes, that are specific to the Java look and
0N/ATo run the Metalworks demo:
0N/AThese instructions assume that this installation's version of the java
0N/Acommand is in your path. If it isn't, then you should either
0N/Aspecify the complete path to the java command or update your
0N/APATH environment variable as described in the installation
0N/Ainstructions for the Java(TM) SE Development Kit.
0N/AThe functionality of the Metalworks demo is minimal, and many
0N/Acontrols are non-functional. They are intended only to show how
0N/Ato construct the UI for such interfaces. Things that do work in
0N/Athe Metalworks demo include:
0N/A1. Choosing New from the File menu displays an e-mail
0N/A2. Choosing Open from the File menu brings up the file chooser.
0N/A3. Choosing Preferences from the Edit menu will bring up a
0N/A dialog. Most of this dialog is only for show.
0N/A4. Choosing About Metalworks from the Help menu brings up a
0N/A JOptionPane with a brief description of the application.
0N/A5. Choosing Open Help Window from the Help menu brings up an
0N/A internal frame that displays a set of HTML files containing
0N/A all sorts of useful info. Look through these for tips about
0N/A6. The Theme menu allows you to change the color theme of the
0N/A application. The default theme (Steel) and several other
0N/A demo themes are included. Note that the themes can control
0N/A not only the colors, but also the sizes of many controls.
0N/A Also included with this demo is the PropertiesMetalTheme
0N/A class, which allows you to read a theme's colors from a text
0N/A file. The Charcoal theme is an example of using this.