JavaOne Conference Trip Report

Project Swing and Java Foundation Classes (JFC) Technology

This turned out to be a set of four demos and presentations about people using JFC currently, two of them using JFC to create accessible software.

The first demo was from Weather Labs.

The next demo was from Axtive, and the presenter provided a list of likes and dislikes of JFC:

• Likes
  • Variety
  • No need to extend UI classes
  • Box layout object
  • JList
  • JTable
  • Borders
  • Portability
• Dislikes
  • API changes
  • Incomplete docs
  • Look and feel is incomplete
  • JOptionPane
  • Combo box
• Tips
  • Start with the demo code
  • Override getPreferredSize()
  • Use layout layering
  • Don't mix awt and JFC
  • Use a profiler (I couldn't get close enough to him afterwards to ask which he used - bummer - perhaps I'll drop him e-mail later)

Next up was a demo from the University of Toronto; they built an audio add-on look-and-feel, which meant an audio look and keyboard feel. The goal was to provide an accessible system for people that are blind or have problems using their fingers to move mice and other standard pointing devices. The demo is available at http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/.

IBM demoed their screen reader - this reads an application's controls and text areas. IBM has written a set of accessibility guidelines at http://www.austin.ibm.com/sns/snsjavag.htm