Hi Nikhil,
Gregg is correct in his discussion about Transparent and Opaque.
The correct reason that Swing components are called light weight and AWT components are called heavy weight is because Swing is not implemented using native code( operating system), which is considered bulky or heavy. Therefore, it is considered light weight!
All AWT components were implemented by the operating system in which the JVM was running. Since that was the case, a single application would look different running on different systems.
Most Swing components are drawn themselves (in
java API). This allows the components much more flexibility in actions and look and feel. Some Swing components are still considered heavy weight:
JWindow
JFrame
JApplet
These are still dragging around native methods. That is the reason why a JFrame in Windows will look like a Windows window and a JFrame on Unix will look like a Motif window.
Regards,
Manfred.