The Application Foundation Classes (AFC) were a graphical framework for building

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

-based

graphical user interface A graphical user interface, or GUI, is a form of user interface that allows user (computing), users to human–computer interaction, interact with electronic devices through Graphics, graphical icon (computing), icons and visual indicators such ...

s (GUIs), developed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

and shipped as part of the Microsoft SDK for Java. AFC was based on the

Abstract Window Toolkit The Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) is Java's original platform-dependent windowing, graphics, and user-interface widget toolkit, preceding Swing. The AWT is part of the Java Foundation Classes (JFC) — the standard API for providing a graphic ...

(AWT), but its architecture made it easier to extend components to better fit user needs. AFC components were announced to be cross-platform, but they worked better with

Microsoft Java Virtual Machine The Microsoft Java Virtual Machine (MSJVM) is a discontinued proprietary Java virtual machine from Microsoft. It was first made available for Internet Explorer 3 so that users could run Java applets when browsing on the World Wide Web. It was t ...

, and support on non-

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

platform was problematic.

History

The release of AFC (along with

J/Direct J/Direct was a technology included in some versions of Microsoft Java Virtual Machine, which allowed direct calls into the Windows API. J/Direct was specific of Microsoft's Virtual Machine, in replacement of the standard Java Native Interface (JNI) ...

(instead of JNI), and WFC), was part of an effort by Microsoft to gain leadership on the growing

community. With the release of

Java Foundation Classes The Java Foundation Classes (JFC) are a graphical framework for building portable Java-based graphical user interfaces (GUIs). JFC consists of the Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT), Swing and Java 2D. Together, they provide a consistent user interfa ...

, interest for AFC dropped, and they later were no longer maintained.

References

External links

AFC presentation
{{Java desktop Java platform

History

See also

References

External links