Java Glossary : IFC

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IFC: According to Barry J. Wark, IFC stands for Internet Foundation Classes. The IFC is an application framework/class library. It is an alternative to Sun's AWT. It was developed by a group of ext-NeXT employees who started NetCode. Netscape acquired NetCode. The NetCode employees kept working on IFC, and eventually on JFC/Swing. The NetCode people are now working at AvantGo doing Palm software. Basically, IFC replaces the GUI classes in the standard Java distribution (the AWT) with classes that are written purely in Java (so they look the same on any machine) and draw themselves using the AWT machinery. IFC uses a slightly different event mechanism (some think it's better, others don't) from AWT. IFC has caught on to a certain extent because it offers features like drag and drop and a TextView object which handles rich styling, which the AWT doesn't yet offer. Also, because it is pure Java, development time for cross platform apps is less. Sun took IFC and reworked it to make it more general and dubbed it JFC/Swing. You won't see IFC used much anymore.
AFC ¤ JFC ¤ Swing

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