A problem changing applet's background colour

Question

Hi there,
I'm hoping somebody can help me with what I believe to be a problem I have in changing the background colour of an applet, the source code of which is posted below. If super.paint(g); is commented out, the background of the applet will be changed to whatever colour is specified, however if it is not the background will remain grey. As I understand though, super.paint(g); should be part of the program. What am I doing wrong? Should super.paint(g); in this example be part of the program?
Before posting this I searched the forums and looked at some of the Q's & A's about changing an applet's background colour but am non the wiser.
Thank you for your help.
Regards,
THE_TH1NG
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Graphics;
public class Calculate extends JApplet
public Calculate()
//Variables used in our calculations.
double sum; // Add the two numbers
double product; // Multiply the two numbers
double quotient; // The first number divided by the second number
double difference; // The first number minus the second number - This may result in a negative value being returned
double userInput1; //Stores the first number as a double after being converted from type string
double userInput2; //Stores the second number as a double after being converted from type string
public void init()
String number1; // The first number to be entered by the user
String number2; // The second number to be entered by the user
number1 = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Please enter the first floating point number"); // The user inputs the first number as a string
number2 = JOptionPane.showInputDialog("Please enter the second floating point number"); // The user inputs the second number as a string
// Convert the user's input from type string to type double
userInput1 = Double.parseDouble( number1 );
userInput2 = Double.parseDouble( number2 );
// Perform the calculations
sum = (userInput1 + userInput2);
product = (userInput1 * userInput2);
difference = (userInput1 - userInput2);
quotient = (userInput1 / userInput2);
public void paint( Graphics g )
//The applets background will be set to the desired colour if super.paint(g) is commented out
//But the background will remain grey if the code is not commented out.
//What am I doing wrong?
//super.paint( g );
setBackground(new Color(50,150,255)); //Light Blue
g.drawRect(10,10,250,100); // Draw a rectangle 250 pixels wide X 100 pixels high to enclose the rest of the program's output
//Dispaly the results of the calculations to the user
g.drawString( "The numbers entered are " + userInput1 + ", " + userInput2, 25, 25);
g.drawString( "The sum is " + sum, 25, 40);
g.drawString( "The product is " + product, 25, 55);
g.drawString( "The difference is " + difference, 25, 70);
g.drawString( "The quotient is " + quotient, 25, 85);

Answer 1

You could try defining
public void update(Graphics g) {
    paint(g);
}That's the only difference I see between your code and my applet code. If that isn't it, you could try getContentPane().setBackground(...) but I don't know how that could make much difference (I would think that the content pane is transparent...)
Another possibility is that, if you're using Swing, you probably shouldn't be overriding paint() and should stick to the paintComponent() method or whatever is appropriate.