Almost every computer on the planet has a Graphical User Interface (GUI) now. There was a time when all commands had to be typed into a command line for the computer to execute them. This is called a Command Line Interface (CLI). GUIs have become so popular that GUI design methodology and implementation know-how are essential skills.

There are many tools available for creating GUIs today; Tcl/Tk, Perl/Tk, Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) and JFC/Swing to name a few. All have their pros and cons. We will be using JFC/Swing to create GUIs because of its Object-Oriented nature, and ease of use.

These course notes are meant to give you some basic guidelines for effective GUI design, and will teach you the details that you need to know in order to create simple GUIs with JFC/Swing. The notes are divided into the following sections: