My GUI doesn't listen to me.

Question

I am have difficulty understanding how to debug my gui. could somebody please point out what I should do. I don't get any errors in my eclipse ide console nor any errors, but it doesn't seem to do what i'm expecting it to do.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JTextField;
public class AL extends Frame implements WindowListener,ActionListener {
     /*Variables*/
     private JFrame frame1 = new JFrame("heyo"); //81 square entries
     private JFrame frame2 = new JFrame("picini"); //Buttons + frame1
     private JButton solve = new JButton("Solve");
     private JButton check = new JButton("Check");
     private JTextField[] entry = new JTextField[81];
     public final static boolean RIGHT_TO_LEFT = false;
     /*Main*/
     public static void main(String[] args) {
          AL myWindow = new AL("test");
          myWindow.setSize(350,100);
          myWindow.setVisible(true);
     /*Constructor*/
     public AL(String bean) {
          // build gui
          super(bean);
          try{
               if (RIGHT_TO_LEFT){
                      this.setComponentOrientation(ComponentOrientation.RIGHT_TO_LEFT);
                this.setLayout(new GridLayout(2,1));
          addWindowListener(this);
          solve.addActionListener(this);
          check.addActionListener(this);          
          add(solve);
          add(check);
          catch(Exception e){
               System.out.println("there is a button_gui building error: "+ e.getMessage());
/*Action Performed*/
     public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
          if(e.equals(solve)){
               System.out.println("Solve");
          else if(e.equals(check)){
               System.out.println("Checking...");
/*Window Listener*/
     public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
          dispose();
          System.exit(0);
     public void windowOpened(WindowEvent e) {}
     public void windowActivated(WindowEvent e) {}
     public void windowIconified(WindowEvent e) {}
     public void windowDeiconified(WindowEvent e) {}
     public void windowDeactivated(WindowEvent e) {}
     public void windowClosed(WindowEvent e) {}
}

Answer 1

Michael pointed out to you a problem in your code, but to be able to pinpoint where the problems are occurring, you need to add code which displays messages when unexpected behavior occurs. For example:
In the actionPerformed part of your code, there is a simple statement you could have added while debugging that would have pointed you to where you went wrong.
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
          if(e.equals(solve)){
               System.out.println("Solve");
          else if(e.equals(check)){
               System.out.println("Checking...");
                else{
                        System.err.println("Action not handled by the action listener.");
     }