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Concurrency in Swing
Initial Threads
The Event Dispatch Thread
Worker Threads and SwingWorker
Simple Background Tasks
Tasks that Have Interim Results
Canceling Background Tasks
Bound Properties and Status Methods
Trail: Creating a GUI with JFC/Swing
Lesson: Concurrency in Swing

> Examples Index

> This lesson discusses concurrency as it applies to Swing programming. It assumes that you are already familiar with the content of the Concurrency lesson in the Essential Classes trail.

> Careful use of concurrency is particularly important to the Swing programmer. A well-written Swing program uses concurrency to create a user interface that never "freezes" — the program is always responsive to user interaction, no matter what it's doing. To create a responsive program, the programmer must learn how the Swing framework employs threads.

> A Swing programmer deals with the following kinds of threads:

> - Initial threads, the threads that execute initial application code.
> - The event dispatch thread, where all event-handling code is executed. Most code that interacts with the Swing framework must also execute on this thread.
> - Worker threads, also known as background threads, where time-consuming background tasks are executed.
> The programmer does not need to provide code that explicitly creates these threads: they are provided by the runtime or the Swing framework. The programmer's job is to utilize these threads to create a responsive, maintainable Swing program.

> Like any other program running on the Java platform, a Swing program can create additional threads and thread pools, using the tools described in the Concurrency lesson. But for basic Swing programs the threads described here are sufficient.

> This lesson discuss each of the three kinds of threads in turn. Worker threads require the most discussion because tasks that run on them are created using `javax.swing.SwingWorker`. This class has many useful features, including communication and coordination between worker thread tasks and the tasks on other threads.

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