I'm trying to figure out if the repaint method does something that we can't do ourselves.
I mean,how are these two versions different?
public class Component extends JComponent {
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
Rectangle r = new Rectangle(0,0,20,10);
g2.draw(r);
r.translate(5,5);
g2.draw(r);
}
}
and
public class Component extends JComponent {
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
Rectangle r = new Rectangle(0,0,20,10);
g2.draw(r);
r.translate(5,5);
repaint();
}
}
The 2nd version can result in a very risky and poor animation since it can result in repaints being called repeatedly, and is something that should never be done. If you need simple animation in a Swing GUI, use a Swing Timer to drive the animation.
i.e.,
public class MyComponent extends JComponent {
private Rectangle r = new Rectangle(0,0,20,10);
public MyComponent() {
int timerDelay = 100;
new Timer(timerDelay, new ActionListener(){
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
r.translate(5, 5);
repaint();
}
}).start();
}
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
super.paintComponent(g);
Graphics2D g2 = (Graphics2D) g;
g2.draw(r);
}
}
The use of repaint()
is to suggest to the JVM that the component needs to be painted, but it should never be called in a semi-recursive fashion within the paint or paintComponent method. An example of its use can be seen above. Note that you don't want to call the painting methods -- paint or paintComponent directly yourselves except under very unusual circumstances.
Also avoid calling a class Componenet
since that name clashes with a key core Java class.