A little problem..

[Ben Jones]

Hello there! I'm new to this any trying to get a GUI sorted out. I've been trying to do Event Handlers but for some reason, I keep getting an error saying the variable can't be found. My code is below:

public class SimpleGui1B implements ActionListener {
    
    public static void main(String[] args){
        SimpleGui1B gui = new SimpleGui1B();
        gui.go();
    }
  
    public void go() {
        JFrame frame = new JFrame();
        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
        
        panel.setBackground(Color.darkGray);
        
        JButton gameStart = new JButton("Start Game");
        gameStart.addActionListener(this);
        JButton highScore = new JButton("High Scores");
        JButton about = new JButton("About");
        
        panel.add(gameStart);
        panel.add(highScore);
        panel.add(about);
        
        myPicture image1 = new myPicture();
        
        frame.getContentPane().add(BorderLayout.SOUTH, panel);
        frame.getContentPane().add(BorderLayout.CENTER, image1);
        
        frame.setSize(350,350);
        frame.setTitle("New Game");
        frame.setResizable(false);
        frame.setVisible(true);
    } 
    
    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent event) {
        [B]gameStart.setText("Clicked");[/B] <== Problem code =]
    }
}
 
    class myPicture extends JPanel {
        public void paintComponent(Graphics g){
            Image image = new ImageIcon("spaceship1.jpg").getImage();
            g.drawImage(image, 0, 0, this);
        }
    }

[Campbell Ritchie]

Welcome to the Ranch.

You would have been better to post on the Swing Forum, but the problem is that the JButton you are calling the action on is declared as a local variable, so it is out of scope when you get to the actionPerformed method.

[Ben Jones]

Campbell Richie, thank you. I've realised (Apparently my spelling of 'realized' isn't right =]) the error of my ways. I declared the button globally. Sorry about posting in wrong section, first post so forgive me please =].

[Campbell Ritchie]

Originally posted by Dan Brownlow:
'realized' isn't right

If only I could get my browser to mark "realised" as correct and "realized" as wrong.

[Campbell Ritchie]

. . . and I trust you have got it working now?

[Ben Jones]

Oops.. Sorry about spelling your name wrong also. Yea', all is working now, declared all the 'JButtons' globally so that all my methods can use them. I really should of noticed that =]

Thanks for the help.

[Campbell Ritchie]

Everybody declares things as local variables from time to time. Don't call them "global" however. That is a C/C++ concept; a C "global" is "visible" to any code in the application. In OO programming you want to declare your fields as "private" so they are only visible within your class.

And no problem about the other things you mentioned!