Hello,

Recently I was going to attempt to make a type of checkers game in Java.  This is a rather "ambitious" project for me, but I felt it was with in my possibilities.  I started by creating a board, using the rect.drawRect(x, y, height, width) command, and managed through a simple loop to come up with a nice checker board.  However, I could not for the life of me figure out how to create an active listener for where the mouse lands.  

SO, I wanted to use JButtons instead, I remembered that JButtons have the SetIcon command, and assumed J++ would have an easy way to select that icon (Black Square, Black Square with piece, White Square).  However, I have not been able to figure out how to add JButtons/panels to my project, any help would be VERY appreciated.  I've searched for a few hours on this already.

Paul@trively.net

You can't use JButtons unless you've got swing.  Unfortunately, due to rather acrimonious disputes between Microsoft and Sun, the only way to get swing is to download it from http://www.java.sun.com.  Odly, the latest jdk also comes without swing.  I don't quite know how to get hold of it, although I'm trying.  It comes as part of the javax package, which must be a separate download.  I'll post again if I find it.  
On the mouselistener front, use the e.getX() and e.getY() to get the position of the mouse cursor, and have an array of points which are the top left-hand corner of each square, and use this in a for loop to work out which sqsuare was hit.  
Hope this helps,
SpinyNorman