John Smith

This might be a start:
http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/treetable1/

This is a known issue in Windows XP. Look here for a possible fix (I haven't tried it).

This is a known issue in Windows XP. Look here for a possible fix (I haven't tried it).

All of our apps leave the DOS window open but minimized (you can set that in your icon).

Don't your users find this annoying? I know I would. Using a C++ launcher program to get rid of DOS windows is one advantage over batch files. Also, if you don't mind dabbling in C++, you can modify the launcher (or create your own - it's very few lines of code) to display a splash screen, or do other OS/machine specific things. The nice thing about the splash screen is that it displays immediately since it doesn't have to wait for Swing/AWT to load.

I wouldn't use a batch file or an executable jar. I have been using something similar to this for some time now. I haven't had any problems with path/classpath issues, incorrect JRE's being used (assuming you bundle your Java app with a JRE, which you should), etc., since I started using it.

You could also try Jacobe, a free command-line utility.

Here is another example.

Just curious; why should Hashtable never be used?
Randy

Hashtable is synchronized and HashMap is not. I believe that is the only difference. Use Hashtable if you need thread-safety. Otherwise, use HashMap since it should be somewhat faster since there's no synchronization.

If you're creating connections and result set objects (among other JDBC stuff) all over the place, you might want to make sure you're calling close() on them when they're finished. That's my only idea.

I don't believe there is date chooser control supplied with the SDK. However, this looks pretty good.
Thanks,
Randy

Just some advice: make sure this "buzz" feature turns off rather quickly. Items that vibrate on the screen are extremely distracting and most people find it hard to concentrate when this type of thing is going on. Have you ever seen those banner ads that vibrate? I always scroll the article I'm trying to read down just enough to hide them...

Yes, other teams could potentially work on these classes, so it's always good to bear that in mind. And we shouldn't forget about the people who have to maintain this stuff!

Well, I agree that asserts shouldn't be used for pre-conditions on non-private methods, which I suppose is what we're talking about here. So, I'll stick with the exception throwing, even though calling a method after delete() has been called should never happen (i.e., it will always be programmer error).

Ahh, very good. I'm using 1.4, so asserts are an excellent idea. I remember seeing something about InvocationHandler's when looking at the source for the Spin project, but completely forgot about it until Ilja mentioned it. That might be just what I'm looking for. Also, AspectJ looks promising, but I'm not sure I want to go there yet...
Randy