A Comparison of Applets and Applications

A Comparison of Applets and Applications
in Java

Prof. David Bernstein
James Madison University

Computer Science Department

bernstdh@jmu.edu

Review

Program (in an Object-Oriented Language):
- A group of cooperating classes with a well-defined entry point (i.e., a method that should be executed first)and, perhaps, a re-entry point and/or an exit point.
Application:
- Runs under the operating system
- Entry point is main()
- Top-level container is usually a JFrame (or Frame)
Applet:
- Runs inside of a client (e.g., a browser)
- Entry point is init() and then start()
- Top-level container is a JApplet (or Applet)

Some Observations

Some Things to Be Careful About

A Technical Issue:
- Make sure methods that manipulate the GUI are called in the event dispatch thread
A Design-Related Issue:
- If you write an applet and an application with the same functionality they will have an enormous amount of duplicate code
An Environment Issue:
- The RootPaneContainer for a JApplet has access to the start-up parameters whereas the RootPaneContainer for an application (which is a JFrame) does not.