Redraw order problems with paintComponent

Question

hi,
i've got this test code below which is simply meant to overlay the scrolling transparent text "HELLO" a few times on top of a normal component
my problem is that the image in the panel, is seemingly being redrawn after the text, when it should be drawn as part of the call to super.paintComponent(g)
is having a thread calling repaint() every few milliseconds is the right way to be doing this in the first place??
any help really appreciated,
asjf
ps. pls ignore the dodgy positioning of text, and calculations of widths etc :)
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.net.URL;
class AnimTest extends JPanel {
   Font myFont;
   Color myColor;
   int x=0;
   AnimTest(URL u){
      super(new BorderLayout(8,8));
      add(new JLabel("Demo text: ajsk sdjfkl dsjfks jd aisuda siu"), BorderLayout.CENTER);
      add(new JLabel(new ImageIcon(u)), BorderLayout.EAST);
      setOpaque(true);
      setBackground(Color.white);  
      myColor = new Color(255,0,0,128);
      myFont = new Font("Dialog",Font.BOLD,14);
      new Thread(new Runnable(){
         public void run() {
            try {
               while(true) {
                  repaint();
                  Thread.sleep(25);
                  x++;
            }catch(InterruptedException e) {
               e.printStackTrace();
      }).start();
   public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
      super.paintComponent(g);
      g.setColor(myColor);
      g.setFont(myFont);
      int width = 3*(getWidth()/2);
      int mid = getHeight()/2 + 10; // sort out later
      for(int i=0; i<width; i+=width/5)
         g.drawString("HELLO",((x+i) % width)-(width/5),mid);
   public static void main(String [] arg) throws Exception {
      URL demo = new URL("http://java.sun.com/images/duke.gif");
      JFrame frame = new JFrame("AnimTest");
      frame.getContentPane().add(new AnimTest(demo));
      frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
      frame.pack();
      frame.show();
}

Answer 1

hi, thanks for the reply. I am not drawing the image myself, but am expecting it to be done as part of the redraw of my classes superclass
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
   super.paintComponent(g);i was expecting the call to super.paintComponent(g) to draw the contents of the JPanel that I've added (which it does do). The strange this is that the image attached to the JPanel is drawn on top the string that I paint after super.paintComponent(g) has completed. Am not sure how this could possibly happen without some complicated postponing of .drawImage coming into play??
thanks,
asjf