Java Calculator

I have to build a Java calculator, I'm not looking for answers, just tips on how I can put the best foot forward.

Originally posted by Samuel Muentes:
I have to build a Java calculator, I'm not looking for answers, just tips on how I can put the best foot forward.

Hi sam,
You can start with J2SE application for making calculator. For GUI part you can use either AWT/Swing component. Or you can also go with applet. For you logic part you can simply use 'switch' for different operations.

Hi Sam,
Welcome to the Ranch. We are happy to have you here

By calculator, I presume you have something graphical, which the user can interact with. You can choose from applications, applets or even some html stuff.
You also can make it more interesting (from the development point of view) by making it a distributed system (the actual computations will happen on the server side). In such a kind of scenario you can go in for web-services or RMI or something similar for client-server communication.

If you can share more details of what you have in mind, or what the requirement is, people can pool in more efficiently with suggestions and tips. Until then, we will be just shooting in the dark.

PS. We have different forums for different java technologies. If you can let us know what technology you prefer, one of the administrators can move this thread to a more appropriate forum, as you will stand a better chance of getting solutions and tips.

Thanks for all the great feedback. I'm sure if I had been more specific it would have been more help. I am in a Java class, so this is an assignment, that's why I don't want any help with the code. It will be an applet as well. With that I ask for any tips you may have for me to get started.

You said applets...moving to the applets forum then.

Just thinking out loud here ... I could envision 5 classes:

the main class that extends JApplet

a class for the display that extends JPanel

a class for the keypad that extends JPanel

a class for numeric keys that extends JButton

a class for operator keys that extends JButton

While the first 3 would be instantiated only once, the latter two would have multiple instances.

Does this help?

Yes, that does help. Thank you.

That really made me aware of other methods for building it.

You all have helped a lot, I am very open to any more tips you may have for me.

Originally posted by Ulf Dittmer:
Just thinking out loud here ... I could envision 5 classes:

the main class that extends JApplet
a class for the display that extends JPanel
a class for the keypad that extends JPanel
a class for numeric keys that extends JButton
a class for operator keys that extends JButton

While the first 3 would be instantiated only once, the latter two would have multiple instances.

Does this help?

And Listeners for the Buttons. Probably two classes, a NumberListener and an OperatorListener.

And Listeners for the Buttons. Probably two classes, a NumberListener and an OperatorListener.

Generally I'd agree, but in this case the Button classes do so little that I'd be inclined to have them implement the listener interface directly. That's a minor detail, though.