Computer-readable memory medium for fast drawing of text fields and labels using a Java swing application program interface
View Patent ↗A system and method are disclosed for fast text drawing in an enhanced version of the Swing application program interface for Java applications. According to the system and method, two lightweight component peers, JTextFieldPeer and JfastLabelPeer, are created. These peers allow the Swing components, JTextField and JLabel, to define the look and feel of the TextField and Label in the graphical user interface for the application; however, they are not allowed to draw the text. Instead, special fast text drawing code within the peers themselves is used to draw the text. Once the text has been initially drawn, editing functions are handled by the Swing components, as is normal. Furthermore, the special fast text drawing routines are assigned a low event priority, making it possible for text to be updated even after it has been buffered and is waiting to be drawn. These features significantly accelerate text rendering. The enhanced version of Swing is referred to herein as AWTSwing.
1. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising:
a first software component, implementing in Java Swing, adapted to create a graphical representation of an object embodied as code within the software component, wherein the code comprises text and other displayable content;
an application program running under an operating system; and
a second software component adapted for drawing the text, wherein the first software component is invoked during runtime by the application program to define visual attributes of the text, but not to draw the text, and wherein the second software component is invoked to draw the text using the visual attributes;
a lightweight peer component, that borrows resources from a platform specific ancestor, adapted for redirecting a memory call to invoke text drawing methods of the second software component rather than text drawing methods of the first software component; and
wherein the first software component is used for drawing the graphical representation of the object on the display screen, and wherein the second software component is used for drawing the text upon the graphical representation of the object.