JAVA Events like AS3 dispatchEvent and addEventListener

Question

I've developed flash based content for years and have got into JAVA now. I've written a few programs now, but there is a feature of as3 I'd like to be able to use in JAVA. That feature is adding, removing, and dispatching Events.
For example, in flash I could do this:
public class example1 extends MovieClip {
public example1() {
public fireEvent() {
this.dispatchEvent(new Event("somethingSpecialGoesHere"));
Then I could call the class and listen for an event from a parent class like this:
public class parentClass extends MovieClip {
public parentClass():void {
var tester:example1 = new example1();
tester.addEventListener("somethingSpecialGoesHere", eventFunctionToFire);
private eventFunctionToFire(evt:Event):void {
trace("Event Fired");
How can I apply this into java programs? Where say I have a parent class - Launcher, which instanciates the child class xmlRead. I want to add an event listener to the instanciated child in Launcher, and then dispatch the event from within the child xmlRead.
How can I go about this? Any ideas? Thanks.

Answer 1

I don't know Flash nor AS3, but an epdermic reaction is that you should study a technology, especially an established one, for what it's worth, and how it's generally used, and not necessarily try to force one language's idiom into another language.
That being said I understand that it's easier t learn from something you're already familiar with. The closest to what you describe in terms of event listening, is described here. Such a event-generator idiom is explicitly supported only by a small number of built-in classes (especially, GUI classes), but can be implemented [fairly easily|http://www.artima.com/designtechniques/eventgen.html] in custom classes as well.