Filthy Rich Clients: Developing Animated and Graphical Effects for Desktop Java Applications

by Chet Haase, Romain Guy

Filthy Rich Clients refers to ultra-graphically rich applications that ooze cool. They suck the user in from the outset and hang on to them with a death grip of excitement. Filthy Rich Developing Animated and Graphical Effects for Desktop Java™ Applications shows you how to build better, more effective, cooler desktop applications that intensify the user experience.

The keys to Filthy Rich Clients are graphical and animated effects. These kinds of effects provide ways of enhancing the user experience of the application through more attractive GUIs, dynamic effects that give your application a pulse, and animated transitions that keep your user connected to the logical flow of the application. The book also discusses how to do soeffectively, making sure to enrich applications in sensible ways.

In-depth coverage includes

Graphics and GUI Dig deep into the internals of how Swing and Java 2D work together to display GUI applications onscreen. Learn how to maximize the flexibility of these libraries and use them most effectively. Follow in-depth discussions and tips throughout the book that will help you write high-performing GUI applications. Understand how images are created and used to make better Java applications.Advanced Learn more about elements of Swing and Java 2D that are of particular benefit to Filthy Rich Clients. Discover general concepts of animation, as well as how to use the facilities provided in the Java platform. Learn new utility libraries that vastly simplify animations in Java. Learn how to create, customize, and use static and animated effects—the mainstays of Filthy Rich Clients.Code examples illustrate key concepts, and the book’s companion Web site, , includes extensive demos, utility libraries, additional information on related technologies, and more.

Informal, fun, and, most of all, useful, this book is great for any developer working with Java to build desktop applications.

Genres: Programming, Technical

604 pages, Paperback

First published July 24, 2007

Reviews

[Erik Nilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is a lot that can be learned from this book. How to write cleaner, more raedable and maintainable code. It's definitely a worth-read.

[Heather Terran · Rating 5 out of 5]

A superb book for anybody who is interested in programming 2D graphics in Java via the AWT and Java2D APIs. Covers the graphics pipeline, rendering mechanics, some threading and scheduling issues, basic animations, effects tricks (simulated shading, reflection, use of gradients, etc.), and lots of solid, practical advice and performance tips. Also good advice on when and where each of these things is actually useful in a UI, rather than obtrusive.

The authors are key players in the design of these APIs, so the have the chops to write about this material authoritatively, but they do so without becoming bogged down in erudition or self-justification (compare, say, to Bjarne Stroustrup's The C++ Programming Language). Accessible writing style and medium-extended examples. Some Amazon reviewers were frustrated with the downloadable code examples, but I can't speak to that, as I haven't tried them. I did find the code examples in the text fairly straightforward to work from and extend.

[James Parra · Rating 4 out of 5]

An oldie now but quite a fun read and taught me a lot of graphics concepts we now take for granted with new generation frameworks like Android, jquery e.t.c - probably still a good read just to find out about the algorithms that make cool animations possible and all that

[Laurent · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book contains the premises for what ultimately became JavaFX