Help regarding parsing the string

Question

I wanted to display diffrent colored strings in the Textarea which is not possible. But from somewhere I came to know that it is possible by parsing the strings comming frm various sources and then display them with diffrent colors. can anyone help me out regarding this. The format is something like:
&x100100100This is a colored string!&n
the &x100100100 means that the text after it should use RGB value of 100,100,100. &n meant that the colors should stop and return to default.
Well... this makes the client need to parse strings and set colors etc
Can anyone explain me with some small code without using the swing class. thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Here is my code I am trying to do...Pls see to it and tell me the mistake....
import java.net.*;
import java.applet.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.lang.*;
public class client extends Applet
     //implements KeyListener
          TextArea display;
          //TextField send;
          TextArea send;
          Label status;
          Color color;
          mypanel p1;
          boolean connected=false;
          private Socket sock;
           protected BufferedReader instream;
          private DataOutputStream out;
          private String IP;
          private int port;
          Thread reader;
          private String fontName;
          private int fontSize;
          private String company;
          private String userName;
          private String userID;
          private String compName;
     public void start()
               String param;
               String mStr ;
               IP=getParameter("IP");
               userID=getParameter("userID");
               userName=getParameter("userName");
               fontName=getParameter("fontName");
               company=getParameter("company");
               mStr=userID+"#"+userName+"#US#"+company+"#1#A";
               param=getParameter("fontSize");
               try{
                    if (param!=null)
                         fontSize=Integer.parseInt(param);
                    else
                         fontSize=0;
                    } catch (NumberFormatException e){
                         fontSize=-1;                    
               param=getParameter("port");
               try{
                    if (param!=null)
                         port=Integer.parseInt(param);
                    else
                         port=2;
                    } catch (NumberFormatException e){
                         port=-1;     
                    //display.append(sock.getURL());
                    connect(IP,port,mStr);
     public void init()
               setBackground(Color.white);
               //color = new Color(221,240,255);
               setForeground(Color.black);
               p1=new mypanel();
               add(p1);
               reader = new readMessage(this);
            reader.setPriority(1);
               //send.addKeyListener(this);
     public void paint(Graphics g){
          String s;
          double p;
          int i;
          //status.setBackground(Color.blue);
          g.setColor(color);
          display.setEditable(false);
          status.setForeground(Color.black);
          display.setBackground(Color.white);
          p1.cmdSend.setBackground(Color.white);
          p1.cmdSend.setForeground(Color.black);
          display.setFont(new Font("Arial", Font.PLAIN, 11));
          //status.setBackground(Color.blue);
          display.setForeground(Color.blue);
     public void connect(String host,int p,String mStr)
           try{
               sock=new Socket(host,p);
               instream = new BufferedReader( new InputStreamReader(sock.getInputStream()));
               out = new DataOutputStream(new BufferedOutputStream(sock.getOutputStream()));
               out.writeBytes(mStr);
               connected=true;
               out.flush();
               reader.start();
               setStatus("You are Connected Successfully. ");
               display.append("Welcome to "+company+" chat . A Customer Support Executive will assist you shortly.\n");
               catch (UnknownHostException a) {
                         connected=false;
                         p1.cmdSend.setEnabled(false);
                         send.setEditable(false);
                         display.append(company+" live support service fails due to some technical reason.");
                        //status.setText("Intelecorp Live Suport service fails due to some technical reasions.");
               catch (IOException b) {
                         connected=false;
                         p1.cmdSend.setEnabled(false);
                         send.setEditable(false);
                         display.append(company+" live support service fails due to some technical reason.");
                        //status.setText("Intelecorp Live Suport service fails due to some technical reasions.");
               catch (SecurityException c ) {
                    connected = false;
                    display.append("Error");
          public void setStatus(String mstr)
               status.setText(mstr);
          public boolean action (Event e, Object arg)
               if(e.target instanceof Button)
                    if (e.target==p1.cmdSend)
                         sendMessage(send.getText());
                         send.setText("");
                         return true;
               return false;
public boolean keyUp(Event e, int key)
        if(key==Event.ENTER)
               sendMessage(send.getText());
              send.setText("");
               return true;
        return false;
     public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e)
          switch (e.getKeyCode()) {
               case KeyEvent.VK_ENTER:
                    sendMessage(send.getText());
                    send.setText("");
                    break;
               default:
                    break;
          return ;
     public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {} ;
     public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {} ;
     public void sendMessage(String mStr)
               int mflag;
               try{
                    mflag=mStr.lastIndexOf('\n');
                    mStr.trim();
                    if ((connected==true) && (mStr.length()>0))
                         if (mflag<0)
                              mStr=mStr+"\n";
                         display.append(userName+" : "+"&x100100100"+mStr+"!&n");
                         out.writeBytes(mStr);
                         out.flush();
                         send.setText("");
               }catch (IOException e){
                         connected=false;
                         p1.cmdSend.setEnabled(false);
                         send.setEditable(false);
                         display.append("Unable to send the message, you may be disconnected from the server.");
                         //status.setText("Unable to send the message, you may disconnected from the server.");
public void destroy(){
          try{
               sock.close();
               }catch (IOException e){
                         status.setText(e.toString());
class readMessage extends Thread{
          client mClient;
          private String mStr;
         public readMessage(client c){
                    super("Client Reader");
                    this.mClient = c;
public void run()
          mStr=null;
     try{
                    if (connected==true)
                         while(true)
                           mStr = instream.readLine();
                           display.append("&x200200200"+mStr+"!&n"+"\n");
                           //display.setText(display.getText()+"\n"+mStr);
                                if (mStr==null)
                              break;
          }catch (IOException e){
                         connected=false;
                         p1.cmdSend.setEnabled(false);
                         send.setEditable(false);
                         display.append("Unable to read the messages, you may be disconnected from the server.");
                         //status.setText("Unable to read the messages, you may disconnected from the server.");
class mypanel extends Panel 
               Label l1,l2,l3;
               Button cmdSend;
               mypanel()
                    setLayout(new BorderLayout());
                    add("North",display=new TextArea("",12,50,TextArea.SCROLLBARS_VERTICAL_ONLY));
                    add("West",send=new TextArea("",2,50,TextArea.SCROLLBARS_VERTICAL_ONLY));
                    //add("West",send=new TextField());
                    add("East",cmdSend=new Button("  Send  "));
                    add("South",status=new Label(""));
}