Continuous movement with a single key press?

Question

I\'m trying to make a program in java that involves making an object move constantly from a single key press. Think Pacman, where you press up once and Pacman continues to g

Answer 1

You need to process the move in a separate thread. I.e.:

public class Pacman implements Runnable
{
    public void run(){
        //moving code, i.e. in a while loop

        //every move will notify the EDT:
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable(){
            public void run(){
                //update the Swing here - i.e. move Pacman
            }
        }
    }

    public void startMoving(){
        new Thread(this).start();
    }

    //more methods to set speed, direction, etc...
}

Then you keep a reference to an instance of Pacman class in your Gui class and respond to various key presses by changing pacman's parameters:

public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e){
    int keyCode = e.getKeyCode();
    if(keyCode == e.VK_LEFT){
        pacman.newDirection(LEFT); //for exmaple, enum with direction LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN...
    }
    //etc... more logic
}