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About Metalworks
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Metalworks is a simple Swing-based simulated e-mail
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application. It shows off several features of Swing, including
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JInternalFrame, JTabbedPane, JFileChooser, JEditorPane, and
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JRadioButtonMenuItem. Metalworks is optimized to work with the
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Java look and feel (codenamed "Metal") and shows use of several
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features, such as themes, that are specific to the Java look and
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feel.
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Running Metalworks
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==================
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To run the Metalworks demo:
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java -jar Metalworks.jar
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These instructions assume that this installation's version of the java
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command is in your path. If it isn't, then you should either
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specify the complete path to the java command or update your
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PATH environment variable as described in the installation
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instructions for the Java(TM) SE Development Kit.
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Metalworks Features
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The functionality of the Metalworks demo is minimal, and many
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controls are non-functional. They are intended only to show how
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to construct the UI for such interfaces. Things that do work in
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the Metalworks demo include:
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1. Choosing New from the File menu displays an e-mail
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composition window.
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2. Choosing Open from the File menu brings up the file chooser.
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3. Choosing Preferences from the Edit menu will bring up a
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dialog. Most of this dialog is only for show.
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4. Choosing About Metalworks from the Help menu brings up a
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JOptionPane with a brief description of the application.
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5. Choosing Open Help Window from the Help menu brings up an
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internal frame that displays a set of HTML files containing
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all sorts of useful info. Look through these for tips about
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using Metal.
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6. The Theme menu allows you to change the color theme of the
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application. The default theme (Steel) and several other
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demo themes are included. Note that the themes can control
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not only the colors, but also the sizes of many controls.
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Also included with this demo is the PropertiesMetalTheme
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class, which allows you to read a theme's colors from a text
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file. The Charcoal theme is an example of using this.
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