How to get the arrow keys to work in 2D game?

Question

I am designing a 2D game (Applet) in which the objective is to move a dot from one end of the room to the other.
how do i get the dot to move in all 4 directions, please help.
If you may, please mention a few EXCEPTIONAL tutorials on JAVA game design.

Answer 1

The best (?) way is to use a KeyListener. http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/docs/api/java/awt/event/KeyEvent.html
In the class that you want the keyevent to occur, put this in your class declaration implements KeyListener { Then somewhere in that class, put addkeyListener(this);. You need to have three methods in this class - keyTyped(KeyEvent e), keyPressed(KeyEvent e) and keyReleased(KeyEvent e).
Here's a sample.
public class Example extends JFrame implements KeyListener
     //some code goes here...
     public void keyTyped (KeyEvent event) {}
     public void keyReleased (KeyEvent event) {}
     public void keyPressed (KeyEvent event)
          int key = event.getSource();
          if (key == KeyEvent.VK_UP)
          //etc.
}