I am having horrible problems getting some examples to work

Question

I am trying to get a couple examples to work from out of Java Examples in a Nutshell, but they are programmed oddly and will not work. I am using a windows 2000 platform with JDK 1.3.1 installed and working properly.
I have so far typed in these 2 examples:
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
public class Containers extends JPanel
{ public Containers()
{ this.setBackground(Color.white);
this.setFont(new Font("Dialog", Font.BOLD,24));
JPanel p1 = new JPanel();
p1.setBackground(new Color(200, 200, 200)); // Panel1 is darker
this.add(p1); //p1 is contained by this component
p1.add(new JButton("#1")); //Button 1 is contained in p1
JPanel p2 = new JPanel();
p2.setBackground(new Color(150,150,150)); // p2 is darker than p1
p1.add(p2); // p2 is contained in p1
p2.add(new JButton("#2")); // button 2 is contained in p2
JPanel p3 = new JPanel();
p3.setBackground(new Color(100,100,100));
p2.add(p3); // p3 is contained in p2
p3.add(new JButton("#3")); // button 3 is contained in p3
JPanel p4 = new JPanel();
p4.setBackground(new Color(150,150,150));
p1.add(p4);
p4.add(new JButton("#4")); //button 4 is contained in p4
p4.add(new JButton("#5")); //Button 5 is also contained in p4
this.add(new JButton("#6")); // button 6 is contained in this component
And this program
//ShowComponent.java
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.beans.*;
import java.lang.reflect.*;
import java.util.Vector;
public class ShowComponent extends JPanel
public static void main(String[] args)
{  // process the command line to get the compenents to display
Vector components = getComponentsFromArgs(args);
// Create a frame (Window) to display the components to display
JFrame frame = new JFrame("ShowComponent");
// Handle window close requests by exiting the VM
frame.addWindowListener(new WindowAdapter() { //anonymous inner class
public void WindowClosing(WindowEvent e) { System.exit(0); }
// set up a menu system that allows the user to select the Look And Feel
// of the component from a list of installed PLAF's
JMenuBar menubar = new JMenuBar(); // create a menu bar
frame.setJMenuBar(menubar); // tell the frame to display the menubar
JMenu plafmenu = createPlafMenu(frame); // create a menu
menubar.add(plafmenu); // Add the menu to the menubar
// Create a JTabbedPane to display each of the components
JTabbedPane pane = new JTabbedPane();
// Now add each component as a tab of the tabbed pane
// use the unqualified component classname as the tab text
for(int i = 0; i < components.size(); i++)
{ Component c = (Component)components.elementAt(i);
String classname = c.getClass().getName();
String tabname = classname.substring(classname.lastIndexOf('.')+1);
pane.addTab(tabname,c);
// Add the tabbedpane to the frame. Note: the call to getContentPane()
// This is required for JFrame, but not for most swing components
frame.getContentPane().add(pane);
// Set the frame size and pop it up
frame.pack(); //Make the frame as big as its children need
frame.setVisible(true); // Make the frame visible on the screen
// The main() method exits now but the Java VM keeps running because
// all AWT programs automatically start an event-handling thread.
//** this static method queries the system to find out what **
//** Pluggable LookAndFeel (PLAF) implementations are available **
//** then it creates a JMenu component that lists each of the **
//** implementations by name and allows the user to select one **
//** of them using JRadioButtonMenuItem components. When the **
//** user selects one, the selected menu item traverses the **
//** component hierarchy and tells all components to use the new**
//** PLAF. **
public static JMenu createPlafMenu(final JFrame frame)
{ //Creates the menu
JMenu plafmenu = new JMenu("Look and Feel");
// Create an object used for radio button mutual exclusion
ButtonGroup radiogroup = new ButtonGroup();
//Look up the available look and feels
UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo[] plafs = UIManager.getInstalledLookAndFeels();
//Loop through the plafs, add a menu item for each one
for(int i = 0; i < plafs.length; i++)
{ String plafName = plafs[i].getName();
final String plafClassName = plafs.getClassName();
// Create the menu items
JMenuItem item = plafmenu.add(new JRadioButtonMenuItem(plafName));
// tell the menu item what to do when it is selected
item.addActionListener(new ActionListener()
{ public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e)
{ try
{ // Set the new Look And Feel
UIManager.setLookAndFeel(plafClassName);
// tell each component to change its look and feel
SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI(frame);
//tell the frame to resize itsself to its childrens
// new desired services
frame.pack();
catch(Exception ex) {System.err.println(ex);
// Only allow one menu item to be selected at once
radiogroup.add(item);
return plafmenu;
//** this method loops through the command line arguements looking for **
//** class names of components to create and property settings for those**
//** components in the form name=value. this method demonstrates **
//** reflection and JavaBeans introspection as they can be aplied to **
//** dynamically created GUI's **
public static Vector getComponentsFromArgs(String[] args)
{ Vector components = new Vector();  // List of Components to return
Component component = null; // the current component
PropertyDescriptor[] properties = null; // Properties of the component
Object[] methodArgs = new Object[1]; // we'll use this below
nextarg: // this is a labeled loop
for (int i = 0; i < args.length; i++)
{ // loop through all the arguments
// if the argument does not contain an equal sign, then
// it is a component class name. Otherwise it is a
// property setting
int equalsPos = args[i].indexOf('=');
if (equalsPos == -1)
{ // Its the name of a component
try { //Load the named component class
Class componentClass = Class.forName(args[i]);
//Instantiate it to create the component instance
component = ((Component)componentClass.newInstance());
//Use Java beans to introspect the component
//And get the list of properties it supports
BeanInfo componentBeanInfo = Introspector.getBeanInfo(componentClass);
properties = componentBeanInfo.getPropertyDescriptors();
catch (Exception e)
{ // If an step failed, print an error and exit
System.out.println("Can't load, instantiate, " +
"or introspect: " +args[i]);
System.exit(1);
//If we succeeded, store the component in the vector
components.addElement(component);
else { // the arg is a name=value property specification
String name = args[i].substring(0, equalsPos); //property name
String value = args[i].substring(equalsPos+1); //property value
// If we do not hava component to set this proerty on, skip!
if (component == null) continue nextarg;
// Now look through the properties descriptors for this
// Component to find one with the same name
for(int p = 0; p < properties.length; p++)
{ if (properties[p].getName().equals(name))
{ // okay, we found a property of the right name
// now to get its type, and the setter method
Class type = properties[p].getPropertyType();
Method setter = properties[p].getWriteMethod();
//check if property is read- only !
if (setter == null)
{ System.err.println("Property " + name+ "is read-only");
continue nextarg; // continue with the next arguement
// try to convert the property value to the right type
// we support a small set of common property types here
// Store the converted value in an object[] so it can
//be easily passed when we invoke the property setter
try { if (type == String.class)
{ // no conversion needed
methodArgs[0] = value;
else if (type == int.class)
{ // String to int
methodArgs[0] = Integer.valueOf(value);
else if (type == boolean.class)
{ //to boolean
methodArgs[0] = Boolean.valueOf(value);
else if (type == Color.class)
{ // to Color
methodArgs[0] = Color.decode(value);
else if (type == Font.class)
{ // String to Font
methodArgs[0] = Font.decode(value);
else { // if we cannotconvert, ignore the proprty
System.err.println("Property " + name+ " is of unsupported type "
+ type.getName());
continue nextarg;
catch (Exception e)
{ System.err.println("Can't set Property: " + name);
// NOw go to next command-line arg
continue nextarg;
// If we get here we didn't find the named property
System.err.println("Warning: No such property: " + name);
return components;
//** A component subclass that demonstrates nested containers and components.
//** It creates the hierarchy shown below, and uses different colors to
//** distinguish the different nesting levels of the containers
//** containers---panel1----button1
//** | |---panel2----button2
//** | | |----panel3----button3
//** | |------panel40---button4
//** | |---button5
//** |---button6
They both compile fine but when I go to run them together I get an error. the command given in the book to run them both together is:
java ShowComponent\Containers
But it does not work. I also tried to append Containers to the bottom of ShowComponent and I got an error that said public class Containers extends JPanel needs to have its own file called Containers.java . . I do not understand that as the file was named correctly for ShowComponent.java. I need to knw either what the true command is for running the programs together or what to name container.java that will make it run inside of ShowContainer.java
this is very frustrating as I need to know these answers for work and no one here in the IT department knows how to program in Java but me

Answer 1

Hi,
I tried the example and got some weird error messages as follows:
********* error messages*********
ShowComponent.java:90: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : method getName ()
location: class javax.swing.UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo[]
{ String plafName = plafs.getName();
^
ShowComponent.java:91: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : method getClassName ()
location: class javax.swing.UIManager.LookAndFeelInfo[]
final String plafClassName = plafs.getClassName();
^
ShowComponent.java:139: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : method indexOf (char)
location: class java.lang.String[]
int equalsPos = args.indexOf('=');
^
ShowComponent.java:143: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : method forName (java.lang.String[])
location: class java.lang.Class
Class componentClass = Class.forName(args);
^
ShowComponent.java:161: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : method substring (int,int)
location: class java.lang.String[]
String name = args.substring(0, equalsPos); //property name
^
ShowComponent.java:162: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : method substring (int)
location: class java.lang.String[]
String value = args.substring(equalsPos+1); //property value
^
6 errors.
*****end of error messages*****
I use jdk1.3 and Win2000. Can anybody tell me how to delete above error messages?
Thanks a lot.
Li