Why do the menus diseappear? please help.....

Question

I am quite new to Java and I use project builder on my mac running OSX. Anyway I found some sample code and I was wondering if anybody could help me out. Basically when the app is compiled it draws "Hello World" in the window and there are two menus in the menubar -> 'File' and 'Edit', but when you go to the about box the menus disappear until you either close the aboutbox or bring the focus back to the main window.
How can I always keep the menus showing when there are multiple windows in the app. Remember that mac menus are fixed to the top of the screen...
anyway heres the code:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import com.apple.mrj.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class test extends JFrame
                      implements  ActionListener,
                                  MRJAboutHandler,
                                  MRJQuitHandler
    static final String message = "Hello World!";
    private Font font = new Font("serif", Font.ITALIC+Font.BOLD, 36);
    protected AboutBox aboutBox;
    // Declarations for menus
    static final JMenuBar mainMenuBar = new JMenuBar();
    static final JMenu fileMenu = new JMenu("File");
    protected JMenuItem miNew;
    protected JMenuItem miOpen;
    protected JMenuItem miClose;
    protected JMenuItem miSave;
    protected JMenuItem miSaveAs;
    static final JMenu editMenu = new JMenu("Edit");
    protected JMenuItem miUndo;
    protected JMenuItem miCut;
    protected JMenuItem miCopy;
    protected JMenuItem miPaste;
    protected JMenuItem miClear;
    protected JMenuItem miSelectAll;
    public void addFileMenuItems() {
        miNew = new JMenuItem ("New");
        miNew.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_N, java.awt.Event.META_MASK));
        fileMenu.add(miNew).setEnabled(true);
        miNew.addActionListener(this);
        miOpen = new JMenuItem ("Open...");
        miOpen.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_O, java.awt.Event.META_MASK));
        fileMenu.add(miOpen).setEnabled(true);
        miOpen.addActionListener(this);
        miClose = new JMenuItem ("Close");
        miClose.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_W, java.awt.Event.META_MASK));
        fileMenu.add(miClose).setEnabled(true);
        miClose.addActionListener(this);
        miSave = new JMenuItem ("Save");
        miSave.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_S, java.awt.Event.META_MASK));
        fileMenu.add(miSave).setEnabled(true);
        miSave.addActionListener(this);
        miSaveAs = new JMenuItem ("Save As...");
        fileMenu.add(miSaveAs).setEnabled(true);
        miSaveAs.addActionListener(this);
        mainMenuBar.add(fileMenu);
    public void addEditMenuItems() {
        miUndo = new JMenuItem("Undo");
        miUndo.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_Z, java.awt.Event.META_MASK));
        editMenu.add(miUndo).setEnabled(true);
        miUndo.addActionListener(this);
        editMenu.addSeparator();
        miCut = new JMenuItem("Cut");
        miCut.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_X, java.awt.Event.META_MASK));
        editMenu.add(miCut).setEnabled(true);
        miCut.addActionListener(this);
        miCopy = new JMenuItem("Copy");
        miCopy.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_C, java.awt.Event.META_MASK));
        editMenu.add(miCopy).setEnabled(true);
        miCopy.addActionListener(this);
        miPaste = new JMenuItem("Paste");
        miPaste.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_V, java.awt.Event.META_MASK));
        editMenu.add(miPaste).setEnabled(true);
        miPaste.addActionListener(this);
        miClear = new JMenuItem("Clear");
        editMenu.add(miClear).setEnabled(true);
        miClear.addActionListener(this);
        editMenu.addSeparator();
        miSelectAll = new JMenuItem("Select All");
        miSelectAll.setAccelerator(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(java.awt.event.KeyEvent.VK_A, java.awt.Event.META_MASK));
        editMenu.add(miSelectAll).setEnabled(true);
        miSelectAll.addActionListener(this);
        mainMenuBar.add(editMenu);
    public void addMenus() {
        addFileMenuItems();
        addEditMenuItems();
        setJMenuBar (mainMenuBar);
    public test() {
        super("test");
        this.getContentPane().setLayout(null);
        addMenus();
        aboutBox = new AboutBox();
        Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
        MRJApplicationUtils.registerAboutHandler(this);
        MRJApplicationUtils.registerQuitHandler(this);
        setVisible(true);
    public void paint(Graphics g) {
                super.paint(g);
        g.setColor(Color.blue);
        g.setFont (font);
        g.drawString(message, 40, 80);
    public void handleAbout() {
        aboutBox.setResizable(false);
        aboutBox.setVisible(true);
        aboutBox.show();
    public void handleQuit() {
        System.exit(0);
    // ActionListener interface (for menus)
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent newEvent) {
        if (newEvent.getActionCommand().equals(miNew.getActionCommand())) doNew();
        else if (newEvent.getActionCommand().equals(miOpen.getActionCommand())) doOpen();
        else if (newEvent.getActionCommand().equals(miClose.getActionCommand())) doClose();
        else if (newEvent.getActionCommand().equals(miSave.getActionCommand())) doSave();
        else if (newEvent.getActionCommand().equals(miSaveAs.getActionCommand())) doSaveAs();
        else if (newEvent.getActionCommand().equals(miUndo.getActionCommand())) doUndo();
        else if (newEvent.getActionCommand().equals(miCut.getActionCommand())) doCut();
        else if (newEvent.getActionCommand().equals(miCopy.getActionCommand())) doCopy();
        else if (newEvent.getActionCommand().equals(miPaste.getActionCommand())) doPaste();
        else if (newEvent.getActionCommand().equals(miClear.getActionCommand())) doClear();
        else if (newEvent.getActionCommand().equals(miSelectAll.getActionCommand())) doSelectAll();
    public void doNew() {}
    public void doOpen() {}
    public void doClose() {}
    public void doSave() {}
    public void doSaveAs() {}
    public void doUndo() {}
    public void doCut() {}
    public void doCopy() {}
    public void doPaste() {}
    public void doClear() {}
    public void doSelectAll() {}
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        new test();
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and the coe of the aboutbox
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//      File:   AboutBox.java
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class AboutBox extends JFrame
                      implements ActionListener
    protected JButton okButton;
    protected JLabel aboutText;
    public AboutBox() {
        super();
        this.getContentPane().setLayout(new BorderLayout(15, 15));
        this.setFont(new Font ("SansSerif", Font.BOLD, 14));
        aboutText = new JLabel ("About test");
        JPanel textPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.CENTER, 15, 15));
        textPanel.add(aboutText);
        this.getContentPane().add (textPanel, BorderLayout.NORTH);
        okButton = new JButton("OK");
        JPanel buttonPanel = new JPanel(new FlowLayout(FlowLayout.CENTER, 15, 15));
        buttonPanel.add (okButton);
        okButton.addActionListener(this);
        this.getContentPane().add(buttonPanel, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
        this.pack();
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent newEvent) {
        setVisible(false);
}thanks

Answer 1

Why not make the about box a dialog in the frame which initially has setVisible(false) and only appears when required by chaning this to true, then back to false on closing.
That way it shouldn't interfere with the menus, as it is always there, just not always visible...