Introduction to Java GUI

Java provides a rich set of GUI components through Swing and JavaFX. Before these, Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) was used, but it had limitations in terms of look and feel.

Swing, a part of JFC, is platform-independent and provides a set of 'lightweight' (all-Java language) components that, to the maximum possible degree, work the same on all platforms.

JavaFX is a modern, rich-client application platform for desktop, mobile, and embedded systems with support for 3D graphics, multimedia, and rich content.

Java GUI frameworks follow an event-driven model. This means that user interactions are captured as events, which are then processed by event listeners that you implement.

Java GUI layouts control the size and position of components within a container. Layout managers like BorderLayout, FlowLayout, and GridLayout help achieve responsive designs.

Swing is designed around the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern. This pattern separates the data model, UI representation, and user interaction logic, facilitating a clean design.

Swing is not thread-safe and has a single-thread rule, meaning all the GUI components should be created and modified through the Event Dispatch Thread (EDT) to ensure consistency.