will be displayed using the font "Arial". If this font is not installed on the user's computer, "Verdana" will be used instead. If both these fonts are unavailable, a font from the sans-serif family will be used to show the headlines. Notice how the font name "Times New Roman" contains spaces and therefore is listed using quotation marks. Font style [font-style] The property font-style defines the chosen font either in normal, italic or oblique. In the example below, all headlines marked with

will be shown in italics. h1 {font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif;} h2 {font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-style: italic;} * Show example Font variant [font-variant] The property font-variant is used to choose between normal or small-caps variants of a font. A small-caps font is a font that uses smaller sized capitalized letters (upper case) instead of lower case letters. Confused? Take a look at these examples: Four examples of fonts in small caps If font-variant is set to small-caps and no small-caps font is available the browser will most likely show the text in uppercase instead. h1 {font-variant: small-caps;} h2 {font-variant: normal;} * Show example Font weight [font-weight] The property font-weight describes how bold or "heavy" a font should be presented. A font can either be normal or bold. Some browsers even support the use of numbers between 100-900 (in hundreds) to describe the weight of a font. p {font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif;} td {font-family: arial, verdana, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;} * Show example Font size [font-size] The size of a font is set by the property font-size. There are many different units (e.g. pixels and percentages) to choose from to describe font sizes. In this tutorial we will focus on the most common and appropriate units. Examples include: h1 {font-size: 30px;} h2 {font-size: 12pt;} h3 {font-size: 120%;} p {font-size: 1em;} * Show example There is one key difference between the four units above. The units 'px' and 'pt' make the font size absolute, while '%' and 'em' allow the user to adjust the font size as he/she see fit. Many users are disabled, elderly or simply suffer from poor vision or a monitor of bad quality. To make your website accessible for everybody, you should use adjustable units such as '%' or 'em'. Below you can see an illustration of how to adjust the text size in Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer. Try it yourself - neat feature, don't you think? Compiling [font] Using the font short hand property it is possible to cover all the different font properties in one single property. For example, imagine these four lines of code used to describe font-properties for

: p { font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; font-size: 30px; font-family: arial, sans-serif; } Using the short hand property, the code can be simplified: p { font: italic bold 30px arial, sans-serif; } The order of values for font is: font-style | font-variant | font-weight | font-size | font-family Summary You have now learned about some of the possibilities related to fonts. Remember that one of the major advantages of using CSS to specify fonts is that at any given time, you can change font on an entire website in just a few minutes. CSS saves time and makes your life easier. In the next lesson we will look at text. __________________________________________________________________ Related topics in the CSS Forum Replies Views Font issues 3 1364 Wrapping text around images not working 3 2769 wrap text around div 1 2347 My text color changed when clicked on in browser 2 2202 Brand New to code, font color not working 1 2321 + Post a new topic __________________________________________________________________ << Lesson 3: Colors and backgrounds Lesson 5: Text >> Tutorials * HTML Tutorial * CSS Tutorial + Introduction + What is CSS? + How does CSS work? + Colors and backgrounds + Fonts + Text + Links + Identification and grouping of elements (class and id) + Grouping of elements (span and div) + The box model + Margin and padding + Borders + Height and width + Floating elements (floats) + Positioning of elements + Layer on layer with z-index (Layers) + Web-standards and validation * PHP Tutorial * ASP Tutorial * JavaScript Tutorial Language [English___________] >> Layout [Default_______] >> __________________________________________________________________ Who is online: In total there are 336 users online :: 4 registered, 0 hidden and 332 guests Most users ever online was 819 on Mon Oct 15, 2012 9:42 am Registered users: Exabot [Bot], Google [Bot], Google Adsense [Bot], Google Feedfetcher Statistics: Total posts 9987 - Total topics 4189 Total members 10321 - Our newest member stumpht View complete list of members Language: العربية | Deutsch | English | Español | Français | עברית | Italiano | Polski | Portgués (Brasil) | Русский | 中文 | * Home * Articles * Tutorials * Profile * Login / Sign Up [linux-org-logo.png] Search * (*) Articles * ( ) Tutorials * ( ) Entire Site ____________________ Go [peek.png] * Home * Articles * Tutorials * Profile * Login / Sign Up [comment-arrow.png] # __________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ [BUTTON Input] (not implemented)______________ [BUTTON Input] (not implemented)______ Comment goes here You should log in and post some comments! The link is up there in the toolbar. Go nuts! Programming with bash System Administration Linux and Subversion Programming with BASH Thought it might sound like it, BASH isn't one of those captions that pop up (along with Ooff! and Biff!) when Batman and Robin are fighting the bad guys on the old 60's TV show. BASH actually stands for Bourne Again Shell. The reason for the name goes back to Steve Bourne who wrote the original Bourne Shell for Unix. When the GNU created a Free Software equivalent, they named it after Steve's shell and added a little pun on his last name. If you're a system administrator, making BASH scripts is going to be one of those mandatory things. But far from being a chore, you'll learn that it's going to make your work and your life a whole lot easier. Our First BASH Script The first thing that a BASH script needs is the proverbial 'shebang'. These are two characters: #! Following this, you should include the path to the BASH interpreter. So the first line of your script should look like this: #!/bin/bash If your default shell is BASH, the line: #!/bin/sh does the same thing. It's just a symbolic link to /bin/bash. But if your default shell isn't BASH, you won't be invoking /bin/bash if your write a shell script with that first line. Since on Linux systems, BASH is normally the default shell, you'll see most BASH scripts start with #!/bin/sh From there on, you're free to do what the shell allows. Shell scripts created for administration purposes (which are the majority of scripts) are made up of lines that invoke other commands. Let's look at a simple example. Let's say you have email users on your system but you don't have a quota in place. Still, you want to monitor the sizes of the mailboxes to make sure that people aren't taking up more space than they should. This script, run from crontab, would do the trick nicely: Except for the shebang, comment lines start with # #!/bin/sh # show us the size of email spools email spools # date in YYYY-MM-DD format today=`date +%Y-%m-%0e`; # subject and recipient variables subject="Mailcheck"; sendto="admin@linux.ork"; cd /var/spool/mail ls -lSh | awk '{print $5, $9}' | grep "(G|M)" | mail -s $subject-$today $sendto # end script First off, you'll see that we've declared some variables. These variables are not prefixed by any characters when declared but they are prefixed by the dollar sign ($) when used. You've also noticed that variables can be other commands, as in this example with the date command. When you use a command as a variable, it must be put inside backticks (` `). First, the script changes to the directory where the mail spools are located. The the scripts performs an 'ls' with options and presents a list where the biggest spools are displayed first with their size in human readable format. This is piped to awk, which sorts out the size and the user name. The awk output is grepped for those spools which are in the Megabytes and Gigabytes. This is then piped to the 'mail' command and sent to the admin account with the subject plus the date we declared in those variables. The admin will then have a nice sorted list of who is using the most space in /var/spool/mail. Built in Variables Though we created our own variables in the previous example, BASH also comes with what are known as built invariables. Here is an example of a script with frequently used built in variables. #!/bin/sh echo "You are user $UID on $HOSTNAME" echo "Your home directory is: $HOME" echo "$HOSTNAME is running $OSTYPE" The output of this script should yield something similar to this: You are user 500 on penguin.linux.ork Your home directory is: /home/mike penguin.linux.ork is running linux-gnu As you can see, we didn't have to previously declare any of these. That's why they're known as built-in variables. Their use will save you a lot of time in writing your scripts. You can find a complete list of built-in variables in theGNU BASH Reference Manual Interactive Scripts Though we mentioned that the main use of BASH scripts is for automating administrative tasks, there may be times when you need users to interact with scripts. If you want a user to input information, you need to use the variableread. Let's take a look at the following example: #!/bin/sh echo -n "Enter the name of a city: " read CITY echo -n "$CITY is " case $CITY in London | Paris | Berlin | Rome) echo -n "in Europe";; 'New York' | Chicago | Washington) echo -n "in The USA";; Tokyo | Bejing | Bangalore) echo -n "in Asia";; *) echo -n "some place - but I don't know where";; esac As you can see, we've declared a variable that's going to depend on what the user types in when he/she is prompted for the name of a city. After, we have several options for each case. If the user types in the name of a city we've contemplated here, he/she will be given a message as to where the city is. If not, the script will display a message that it doesn't know where the city is. Any answer is represented by the asterisk (*) Making Sure You Have What You Need If you have to manipulate the contents of a file, it's a good idea to check if this file exists first. Here is a simple BASH routine to do this using the if command: #!/bin/sh if test -f /var/log/mail.log; then printf "The file existsn"; fi This is a good idea, as it would render your script useless if you had it set to manipulate a file that didn't exist. If Loops: A Practical Example I was a full-time English as a foreign language teacher for 12 years, so I can't resist giving you this example of a multiple-choice test using a BASH script. #!/bin/sh PS3="Choose the number of the correct word to fill in the blank: " echo "The emergency brake let go and car rolled ______ the hill" select SENT1 in up down along beside do if [ "$SENT1" == "" ]; then echo -e "You need to enter somethingn" continue elif [ "$SENT1" != down ]; then echo -e "Sorry. Incorrectn" echo "1. Incorrect" >> eoiexam.dat elif [ "$SENT1" == down ]; then echo -e "Great!n" echo "No. 1 - Correct" >> eoiexam.dat break fi done The script makes use of the 'elif' routine to sort out answers that aren't correct. You will also notice that it writes the results, whether correct or not, to a file. If you're in the teaching profession, you could expand on this to give your students a quick quiz. System Administration Linux and Subversion Article Details Author: Linux.org Admin Publish Date: 05/03/2012 Last Updated: 05/04/2012 Categories: Advanced Level Course * System Administration 1. tcpdump 2. Providing Services Under Linux 3. System Administration * Programming 1. Programming with bash 2. Linux and Subversion 3. Linux and CVS 4. Programming in Linux * Security 1. Checking for damage with rootkit hunter 2. OpenSSH 3. Setting up snort 4. Firewalls 5. Basic Security 6. Keeping Your Linux System Secure An Insecure World * Home * Articles * Tutorials * Linux News * Linux Jobs * Linux News * Linux Forum * Webmaster Forum * Contact * Sitemap * Advertising * Corporate Sponsors * Linux.org Facebook Page * Linux.org Twitter Page * Linux.org Google Plus Page * Linux.org RSS Feed Copyright © 2013 Linux.org | All Rights Reserved Content by IQnection.com | Hosting by LinuxPowerHosting.com * Home * Articles * Tutorials * Profile * Login / Sign Up [linux-org-logo.png] Search * (*) Articles * ( ) Tutorials * ( ) Entire Site ____________________ Go [peek.png] * Home * Articles * Tutorials * Profile * Login / Sign Up [comment-arrow.png] # __________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ [BUTTON Input] (not implemented)______________ [BUTTON Input] (not implemented)______ Comment goes here You should log in and post some comments! The link is up there in the toolbar. Go nuts! Programming in Linux Linux and CVS Checking for damage with rootkit hunter Tools for Programming At the risk of starting a flame war with Vi lovers, I'm an unconditional Emacs fan. For me, Emacs is the ideal editor for doing any kind of programming work. There are several add-ons for Emacs that will make your life much easier. One of them is Espen Skoglund's auto-header.el. This will create a header for your code files which Emacs will automatically populate with necessary information. It will also update the header each time you make changes. It's something that comes in really handy for me. I have a subdirectory in my home directory for emacs odds and ends. I just placed auto-header.el in this directory and then modified my .emacs file like so: (add-to-list 'load-path "~/elisp/") (require 'auto-header) There is a section of the auto-header.el file that defines the characters that are used for commented areas for different programming languages. The headers for the file need to be inside a commented region at the beginning of your source code file. The file includes 20 different programming languages, but PHP, which I use a lot, is missing. So I just added an entry for it between Perl and Postscript: (perl-mode . ("#" "" "##" "#")) (php-mode . ("/*" "*/" " *" "*")) (postscript-mode . ("%" "" "%%" "%")) Now, my files begin with a nice, auto-updating header that looks like this: /********************************************************************* * Filename: listing.php * Description: Script to list stuff * Author: Michael Jordan * Created at: Tue Nov 29 20:13:14 2005 * Modified by: Michael Jordan * Modified at: Tue Nov 29 22:58:56 2005 ********************************************************************/ Actually, you can add more info to this header. Just consult the comments in the auto-header.el file itself for more information on that. Programming Languages and Linux The is a virtual smorgasbord of programming language compilers available for Linux. Just the famous gcc compiler itself will create binaries for code written in, C++, Fortran and ADA as well as interpreting Java code. There are freely available compilers for other popular programming languages like Pascal, COBOL and Lisp. As you can see, there are really too many to go into all of them in any depth. Besides, this writer can't program in the vast majority of them anyway. But in this lesson, we will be looking at some of the most common scripting languages that run under Linux. Programming with BASH Thought it might sound like it, BASH isn't one of those captions that pop up (along with Ooff! and Biff!) when Batman and Robin are fighting the bad guys on the old 60's TV show. BASH actually stands for Bourne Again Shell. The reason for the name goes back to Steve Bourne who wrote the original Bourne Shell for Unix. When the GNU created a Free Software equivalent, they named it after Steve's shell and added a little pun on his last name. If you're a system administrator, making BASH scripts is going to be one of those mandatory things. But far from being a chore, you'll learn that it's going to make your work and your life a whole lot easier. Our First BASH Script The first thing that a BASH script needs is the proverbial 'shebang'. These are two characters: #! Following this, you should include the path to the BASH interpreter. So the first line of your script should look like this: #!/bin/bash If your default shell is BASH, the line: #!/bin/sh does the same thing. It's just a symbolic link to /bin/bash. But if your default shell isn't BASH, you won't be invoking /bin/bash if your write a shell script with that first line. Since on Linux systems, BASH is normally the default shell, you'll see most BASH scripts start with #!/bin/sh From there on, you're free to do what the shell allows. Shell scripts created for administration purposes (which are the majority of scripts) are made up of lines that invoke other commands. Let's look at a simple example. Let's say you have email users on your system but you don't have a quota in place. Still, you want to monitor the sizes of the mailboxes to make sure that people aren't taking up more space than they should. This script, run from crontab, would do the trick nicely: Except for the shebang, comment lines start with # #!/bin/sh # show us the size of email spools email spools # date in YYYY-MM-DD format today=`date +%Y-%m-%0e`; # subject and recipient variables subject="Mailcheck"; sendto="admin@linux.ork"; cd /var/spool/mail ls -lSh | awk '{print $5, $9}' | grep "(G|M)" | mail -s $subject-$today $sendto # end script First off, you'll see that we've declared some variables. These variables are not prefixed by any characters when declared but they are prefixed by the dollar sign ($) when used. You've also noticed that variables can be other commands, as in this example with the date command. When you use a command as a variable, it must be put inside backticks (` `). First, the script changes to the directory where the mail spools are located. The the scripts performs an 'ls' with options and presents a list where the biggest spools are displayed first with their size in human readable format. This is piped to awk, which sorts out the size and the user name. The awk output is grepped for those spools which are in the Megabytes and Gigabytes. This is then piped to the 'mail' command and sent to the admin account with the subject plus the date we declared in those variables. The admin will then have a nice sorted list of who is using the most space in /var/spool/mail. Built in Variables Though we created our own variables in the previous example, BASH also comes with what are known as built invariables. Here is an example of a script with frequently used built in variables. #!/bin/sh echo "You are user $UID on $HOSTNAME" echo "Your home directory is: $HOME" echo "$HOSTNAME is running $OSTYPE" The output of this script should yield something similar to this: You are user 500 on penguin.linux.ork Your home directory is: /home/mike penguin.linux.ork is running linux-gnu As you can see, we didn't have to previously declare any of these. That's why they're known as built-in variables. Their use will save you a lot of time in writing your scripts. You can find a complete list of built-in variables in theGNU BASH Reference Manual Interactive Scripts Though we mentioned that the main use of BASH scripts is for automating administrative tasks, there may be times when you need users to interact with scripts. If you want a user to input information, you need to use the variableread. Let's take a look at the following example: #!/bin/sh echo -n "Enter the name of a city: " read CITY echo -n "$CITY is " case $CITY in London | Paris | Berlin | Rome) echo -n "in Europe";; 'New York' | Chicago | Washington) echo -n "in The USA";; Tokyo | Bejing | Bangalore) echo -n "in Asia";; *) echo -n "some place - but I don't know where";; esac As you can see, we've declared a variable that's going to depend on what the user types in when he/she is prompted for the name of a city. After, we have several options for each case. If the user types in the name of a city we've contemplated here, he/she will be given a message as to where the city is. If not, the script will display a message that it doesn't know where the city is. Any answer is represented by the asterisk (*) Making Sure You Have What You Need If you have to manipulate the contents of a file, it's a good idea to check if this file exists first. Here is a simple BASH routine to do this using the if command: #!/bin/sh if test -f /var/log/mail.log; then printf "The file existsn"; fi This is a good idea, as it would render your script useless if you had it set to manipulate a file that didn't exist. If Loops: A Practical Example I was a full-time English as a foreign language teacher for 12 years, so I can't resist giving you this example of a multiple-choice test using a BASH script. #!/bin/sh PS3="Choose the number of the correct word to fill in the blank: " echo "The emergency brake let go and car rolled ______ the hill" select SENT1 in up down along beside do if [ "$SENT1" == "" ]; then echo -e "You need to enter somethingn" continue elif [ "$SENT1" != down ]; then echo -e "Sorry. Incorrectn" echo "1. Incorrect" >> eoiexam.dat elif [ "$SENT1" == down ]; then echo -e "Great!n" echo "No. 1 - Correct" >> eoiexam.dat break fi done The script makes use of the 'elif' routine to sort out answers that aren't correct. You will also notice that it writes the results, whether correct or not, to a file. If you're in the teaching profession, you could expand on this to give your students a quick quiz. Linux and CVS Checking for damage with rootkit hunter Article Details Author: Linux.org Admin Publish Date: 05/03/2012 Last Updated: 05/04/2012 Categories: Basics, Linux Other Advanced Level Course * System Administration 1. tcpdump 2. Providing Services Under Linux 3. System Administration * Programming 1. Programming with bash 2. Linux and Subversion 3. Linux and CVS 4. Programming in Linux * Security 1. Checking for damage with rootkit hunter 2. OpenSSH 3. Setting up snort 4. Firewalls 5. Basic Security 6. Keeping Your Linux System Secure An Insecure World * Home * Articles * Tutorials * Linux News * Linux Jobs * Linux News * Linux Forum * Webmaster Forum * Contact * Sitemap * Advertising * Corporate Sponsors * Linux.org Facebook Page * Linux.org Twitter Page * Linux.org Google Plus Page * Linux.org RSS Feed Copyright © 2013 Linux.org | All Rights Reserved Content by IQnection.com | Hosting by LinuxPowerHosting.com UNIX Tutorial Two 2.1 Copying Files cp (copy) cp file1 file2 is the command which makes a copy of file1 in the current working directory and calls it file2 What we are going to do now, is to take a file stored in an open access area of the file system, and use the cp command to copy it to your unixstuff directory. First, cd to your unixstuff directory. % cd ~/unixstuff Then at the UNIX prompt, type, % cp /vol/examples/tutorial/science.txt . Note: Don't forget the dot . at the end. Remember, in UNIX, the dot means the current directory. The above command means copy the file science.txt to the current directory, keeping the name the same. (Note: The directory /vol/examples/tutorial/ is an area to which everyone in the school has read and copy access. If you are from outside the University, you can grab a copy of the file here. Use 'File/Save As..' from the menu bar to save it into your unixstuff directory.) Exercise 2a Create a backup of your science.txt file by copying it to a file called science.bak 2.2 Moving files mv (move) mv file1 file2 moves (or renames) file1 to file2 To move a file from one place to another, use the mv command. This has the effect of moving rather than copying the file, so you end up with only one file rather than two. It can also be used to rename a file, by moving the file to the same directory, but giving it a different name. We are now going to move the file science.bak to your backup directory. First, change directories to your unixstuff directory (can you remember how?). Then, inside the unixstuff directory, type % mv science.bak backups/. Type ls and ls backups to see if it has worked. 2.3 Removing files and directories rm (remove), rmdir (remove directory) To delete (remove) a file, use the rm command. As an example, we are going to create a copy of the science.txt file then delete it. Inside your unixstuff directory, type % cp science.txt tempfile.txt % ls % rm tempfile.txt % ls You can use the rmdir command to remove a directory (make sure it is empty first). Try to remove the backups directory. You will not be able to since UNIX will not let you remove a non-empty directory. Exercise 2b Create a directory called tempstuff using mkdir , then remove it using the rmdir command. 2.4 Displaying the contents of a file on the screen clear (clear screen) Before you start the next section, you may like to clear the terminal window of the previous commands so the output of the following commands can be clearly understood. At the prompt, type % clear This will clear all text and leave you with the % prompt at the top of the window. cat (concatenate) The command cat can be used to display the contents of a file on the screen. Type: % cat science.txt As you can see, the file is longer than than the size of the window, so it scrolls past making it unreadable. less The command less writes the contents of a file onto the screen a page at a time. Type % less science.txt Press the [space-bar] if you want to see another page, and type [q] if you want to quit reading. As you can see, less is used in preference to cat for long files. head The head command writes the first ten lines of a file to the screen. First clear the screen then type % head science.txt Then type % head -5 science.txt What difference did the -5 do to the head command? tail The tail command writes the last ten lines of a file to the screen. Clear the screen and type % tail science.txt Q. How can you view the last 15 lines of the file? 2.5 Searching the contents of a file Simple searching using less Using less, you can search though a text file for a keyword (pattern). For example, to search through science.txt for the word 'science', type % less science.txt then, still in less, type a forward slash [/] followed by the word to search /science As you can see, less finds and highlights the keyword. Type [n] to search for the next occurrence of the word. grep (don't ask why it is called grep) grep is one of many standard UNIX utilities. It searches files for specified words or patterns. First clear the screen, then type % grep science science.txt As you can see, grep has printed out each line containg the word science. Or has it ???? Try typing % grep Science science.txt The grep command is case sensitive; it distinguishes between Science and science. To ignore upper/lower case distinctions, use the -i option, i.e. type % grep -i science science.txt To search for a phrase or pattern, you must enclose it in single quotes (the apostrophe symbol). For example to search for spinning top, type % grep -i 'spinning top' science.txt Some of the other options of grep are: -v display those lines that do NOT match -n precede each matching line with the line number -c print only the total count of matched lines Try some of them and see the different results. Don't forget, you can use more than one option at a time. For example, the number of lines without the words science or Science is % grep -ivc science science.txt wc (word count) A handy little utility is the wc command, short for word count. To do a word count on science.txt, type % wc -w science.txt To find out how many lines the file has, type % wc -l science.txt Summary Command Meaning cp file1 file2 copy file1 and call it file2 mv file1 file2 move or rename file1 to file2 rm file remove a file rmdir directory remove a directory cat file display a file less file display a file a page at a time head file display the first few lines of a file tail file display the last few lines of a file grep 'keyword' file search a file for keywords wc file count number of lines/words/characters in file Previous Home Next M.Stonebank@surrey.ac.uk, © 9th October 2000 400 Bad request Your browser sent an invalid request. Tizag Tutorials _______________________________ Search Home __________________________________________________________________ Web TutorialsBeginner Tutorial HTML Tutorial CSS Tutorial Scripting Javascript Tutorial PHP Tutorial Perl Tutorial Ajax Tutorial ASP Tutorial VBScript Tutorial Databases SQL Tutorial MySQL Tutorial Miscellaneous XML Tutorial Webhost Tutorial Flash Tutorial SEO Tutorial __________________________________________________________________ Perl Tutorial Perl - Introduction Perl - First Script Perl - Syntax Perl - Variables Perl - Strings Perl - Numbers Perl - Operators Perl - Arrays Perl - If Perl - For Perl - While Perl - Hashes File Management Perl - File Handles Perl - Open Perl - Create Perl - Input Perl - Copy Perl - Delete Command Promt Perl - Programming Perl - User Input Perl - Chomp Databases Perl - DBI Module Perl - DBI Connect Perl - DBI Query Perl - MySQL Module Perl - MySQL Connect Perl - MySQL SelectDB Perl - MySQL Query Get Help!Perl Forum __________________________________________________________________ Contact Us Bookmark and Share PERL - First Script With PERL installed we are ready to dive into our first script. There are a few elements every PERL script must contain in order to function. Open up your favorite simple text editor, the file extension for PERL scripts is .pl. Save your files with this extension. Advertise on Tizag.com The first line of every PERL script is a commented line directed toward the PERL interpreter. This line is generally the same from one instal of PERL to the next, it might look something like this if you were running it on linux: firstscript-linux.pl: #!/usr/bin/perl And on a windows operating system it may resemble: firstscript-windows.pl: #!D:\Perl\bin\perl In this tutorial we will assume you are running on a linux server (the most common web server), but if you are on windows make sure you use the correct path! The comment points to the installation path of Perl, usually /usr/bin/perl. You can locate the directory tree to Perl somewhere in the documentation of your web server, or email your web host and they can specify your Perl installation directory. Perl - HTTP Headers Because we are working in a web environment we are sort of jumping ahead of the game. We have to introduce some HTTP headers so that Perl understands we are working with a web browser. To do this we have to run another line of strange code called an HTTP header as you may have guessed. It looks something like this: firstscript.pl: #!/usr/bin/perl print "content-type: text/html \n\n"; At this point our script still has no real functionality, all we have done thus far is locate our PERL interpreter and tell it that we are going to be working with a web browser or in a web environment. PERL - Hello, Perl! Script Now that we have located the interpreter and told PERL we are working with the web, we can print text to the browser with the print function. helloperl.pl: #!/usr/bin/perl print "content-type: text/html \n\n"; print "Hello, Perl!"; Display: Hello, Perl! You should see "Hello, Perl!" in the top left corner of your browser. If you have a problem, ask about it on the Perl Forum Perl - Execute Your First Script Now it is time to upload your firstscript-linux.pl to your web server and execute it. After you upload your file be sure to CHMOD the script file and allow anonymous execution priviledge, generally a setting of 0755 works perfectly. Your script is working perfectly if you are staring at a blank screen and didn't recieve a 500 or 404 error message. Perl - Debugging Your Script(s) If you are using an FTP program to upload your scripts, set the upload type to ASCII or "Text". This setting prevents the mysterious addition of random characters that sometimes happens when copying files across different operating systems. Learning to do this prevents hours of headaches and frustration. Another great debugging technique is to isolate the code you are currently working on. To do this you can temporarily comment out lines of code to isolate only the section that is returning an error message. 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Microsoft Office Tutorials Artist Tutorials __________________________________________________________________ 2003-2008 Erack Network | Copyright | Privacy Policy | Advertising Information Site design by Seattle Web Design #Vectips RSS Feed Vectips » Create a Grimy Text Treatment with a Pen Tablet Comments Feed Vectips Shiny Buttons Without Blends or Transparencies in Illustrator Illustrator CS5 New Features Weekly Vector Inspiration #66 * Home * About * Resources * Contact * Shop Vectips Illustrator® tips, tricks, and tutorials * Tutorials * Tips and Tricks * Interviews * Inspiration Create a Grimy Text Treatment with a Pen Tablet Tutorials | April 15th, 2010 Grimy Text Illustrator Tutorial In this tutorial I will show you how to create a grimy text treatment utilizing Illustrator’s Blog brush, Live Paint, and a pen tablet. You can easily apply these techniques to other illustrates, type treatments and logos. Final Image Below is the final type treatment we be working towards. Final Illustrator tutorial image Tutorial Details * Program : Adobe Illustrator CS4 (This tutorial uses the Blob Brush, a tool specific to CS4. If you have an earlier version of Illustrator, refer to the Alternate Tutorial Methods step at the end of this post.) * Hardware Needed: Pen Tablet (I used a Wacom Intous4 for the tutorial. If you don’t have a pen tablet, refer to the Alternate Tutorial Methods step at the end of the tutorial for other methods for creating the tutorial.) * Difficulty: Intermediate * Topics Covered: Blob Brush, Live Paint * Estimated Completion Time: 1.5 hour – 2 hours Step 1 Create a new document and type out some text with the Text tool (T). Change the fill of the text to a light gray. Step 1 Step 2 In the Layers panel, rename your layer to “Template” by double-clicking on the layer and changing the name in the Layer Options dialog. Next, lock the layer. Create a new layer by pressing the Create New Layer button from the Layers panel and rename this layer to “Artwork”. Step 2 Step 3 For drawing the outlines and contours of the treatment, we are going to use the Blob Brush(Shift + B) and a pen tablet. First, you need to set up the Blob Brush (Shift + B) to use the pressure sensitivity of the tablet. To do this, double-click on the Blob Brush (Shift + B) in the Tools Panel. In the Blob Brush Tool Options, you really only have to change: the Fidelity to 1, Smoothness to 0, Size to 2, select Pressure from the size drop-down menu, and change the Variation to 2. Now with these settings, the Blob Brush will utilize the pen tablet’s pressure sensitivity. Moreover, adjusting the Fidelity and Smoothness creates a brush stroke with a hand-drawn feel. Step 3 Step 4 Zoom in really close to you first letter and start tracing it with the Blob Brush (Shift + B). When tracing, vary the pressure on your pen tablet to get a hand-drawn type of stroke. Also, use multiple brush strokes in your trace, don’t just trace the whole letter with one brush stroke. I also like to start each brush stroke very light and end very light, creating tapered lines. Step 4 Step 5 Once you are done tracing the first letter, create some more Brush strokes within the letter making it more grimy! Step 5 Step 6 Now that we have our brush strokes, we can add some color to the letter. First, select all the letter artwork and select the Live Paint Bucket (K) from the Tools Panel. The Live Paint Bucket (K) converts the artwork to a Live Paint object. Now you can simply hover over the area you want to fill, cycle through your swatches with your arrow keys, and click the areas to fill. Step 6 Step 7 Select your Live Paint object and go Object > Live Paint > Expand. Next, ungroup the object (Command + Shift + G) a couple of times. Step 7 Step 8 Select your main letter color and go Object > Path > Offset. In the Offset Path dialog, change the Offset to -3 px. This value might be larger or smaller depending on the original size of your artwork. Fill the offset with a lighter shade of color from the original. Step 8 Step 9 We are done with the first letter! Now, repeat Steps 4-8 for each letter. It might take some time, but you will start to get quicker once you have done it a couple of times. Step 9 Step 10 Now that we have all the letters, we don’t need the “Template” layer anymore. Simply press the Visibility icon in the Layers panel to hide it. Next, Group (Command + G) each individual letter’s artwork. It makes it easy to modify the letters in the coming steps. Step 10 Step 11 Use the Selection tool (V) to move and rotate each letter. Use the Illustrator’s Arrange functions to bring some of the letters to the front and some to the back by Going Object > Arrange. Step 11 Step 12 To give the treatment a little more depth, we can create some shadows. To start, select the first two letters, Copy (Command + C), and Paste in Front (Command + F). Select the first letter’s copy and press the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel. Select the second letter’s copy and again, press the Untie button from the Pathfinder panel. Select the first letter’s copy and move it down and to the right. Select both copies and press the Intersect button from the Pathfinder panel. Change the fill of the new shape to a light gray, set the Blending Mode to Multiply from the Transparency panel, and Arrange the shape so it is behind the first letter, but in front on the second. Step 12 Step 13 Repeat the previous step for each letter’s shadow. Step 13 Step 14 To make the treatment a little more grimy, use the Blob Brush and create little specs around the text. Use the same Live Paint techniques as discussed before to fill in the speck shapes. That is it, done! Step 14 Final Image Below is the final type treatment again. Try using the Blob brush and pen tablet on other illustrations and type treatments, it’s fun! Final Illustrator tutorial image Alternate Tutorial Methods Calligraphic Brush If you don’t have CS4 but you do have a pen tablet, you can use a Calligraphic brush instead of the Blob Brush (Shift +B) for the outlines of the type treatment. If you have CS3, you can use the Live Paint technique or you can just create shapes of color with the Pen tool (P), Pencil tool (N), or another tool of your choice. To set up a Calligraphic brush with the same settings as the Blob Brush settings in this tutorial, click the New Brush Icon in the Brush panel. When the New Brush dialog opens, choose New Calligraphic Brush. In the Calligraphic Brush Options, change the Angle to 0, the Roundness to 100%, the Diameter to 2 pt, select Pressure from the Size drop-down menu, and change the Variation to 2 pt. Now you can outline the image with the same pressure sensitivity as the Blob Brush. Calligraphic Brush Art Brushes If you don’t have a pen tablet, you can always use an Art brush for the outlines instead of the Blob Brush (Shift +B) . Art brushes are still very versatile, but they will not use you pen tablets pressure sensitivity. Still, you can find a brush that has similar tapered lines. My previous article Create Sketchy-Style Vectors will help in finding and creating Art brushes. Art Brushes These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. * Digg * del.icio.us * StumbleUpon * Design Float * Facebook * Mixx * TwitThis Visit the Vectips shop! 45 Responses to “Create a Grimy Text Treatment with a Pen Tablet” 1. InkSketch says: April 15, 2010 at 8:11 am This is great. Thanks for sharing! Though it’s now obvious to me, I didn’t even think to use a pen tablet with illustrator. I’m so focused on using it with ps. thanks for the eye opener. Reply 2. Grafiko says: April 15, 2010 at 8:25 am Great tutorial, thanks for sharing. I will definitely try it later Reply 3. sidney ganho says: April 15, 2010 at 8:43 am Very cool tutorial, really nice. Reply 4. Jack says: April 15, 2010 at 8:59 am This is awesome! Just got a Intuos4 large as a birthday present which is a major upgrade over my little A6 Graphire so this tut is ideal for a little practice. Really like the overall effect and it is a good use of the pen pressure so I’ll be sure to give this a go (and get into the habit of using Illustrator for these kind of things more often). Thanks, Reply 5. Lam Nguyen says: April 15, 2010 at 10:46 am oh oh. Great, the final result is very impressive. Thanks, Rype! Reply 6. Marek Rutkowski says: April 15, 2010 at 1:20 pm Wow! One of the bests tuts! Reply 7. Craig Dueren says: April 15, 2010 at 2:25 pm Cheers Rype great tutorial! I’ll be using this on my future t-shirt and poster designs Reply 8. Nick says: April 16, 2010 at 2:51 am Thanks Ryan – another great tutorial. I really have to stop using the Wacom tablet as just a large wireless mouse pad! Reply 9. Ron says: April 16, 2010 at 7:04 am Great artwork! Great techniques! Reply 10. Theo Hodkin says: April 18, 2010 at 10:29 am Some great techniques in here! Love the end result. Gonna try later. Reply 11. Laurie K says: April 19, 2010 at 7:11 pm This is a great tutorial! I can’t wait until I can get a new Wacom so I can try it out. Reply 12. priandhani says: April 20, 2010 at 3:20 am Great job…!!! Reply 13. Josh W says: April 20, 2010 at 10:32 pm Great tutorial! What font is the type in? Reply + Rype says: April 21, 2010 at 6:10 am It is Museo Sans. Reply 14. Daniel says: April 21, 2010 at 9:28 am Nice tut. But I cant create the shawdows, Pathfinder says the paths dont intersect on the intersect-command. :-( Any hints? Reply 15. Robert says: April 23, 2010 at 6:34 am This one left me with a hungry feeling. It looks like sweet beer battered and fried alphabet chips to me. Reply 16. Rondal says: April 26, 2010 at 6:55 am Great tutorial! I was actually just looking for something similar a week or so ago and could not find a single article or tutorial online. Many thanks for the instruction! Reply 17. Brandon says: April 29, 2010 at 10:42 am Amazing….the shadowing really adds a lot! Reply 18. pratham says: April 30, 2010 at 12:46 am great vector text tutorial.fantastic artwork web designer http://www.scrapsforever.com Reply 19. Vishal Gupta says: April 30, 2010 at 4:08 am Loved the way to use pen tablet. Reply 20. Joe says: May 8, 2010 at 2:24 am One thing extra thing I did to the letters while I was tracing them was when I was done I would use the eraser and would trim some of my strokes. I personally think it helped it quite a bit. Well anyways… great tutorial! Reply 21. kyle says: May 9, 2010 at 7:33 pm Really great tutorial, thanks! I’ve got a pen tablet, but CS3 so I used the calligraphy brush and it worked well. I’m really glad you added that tip. With CS4 (and now CS5) I find some articles which i can’t really relate to because they use features I don’t have. Here’s what I made http://www.kyleism.com/?p=114 Reply 22. soumyajit says: May 12, 2010 at 5:15 am Nice effect . If possible add more stuff like this .Your readers will be helpful .Thnx Reply 23. timbradley says: May 25, 2010 at 8:40 pm Brilliant tutorial – love the look! Reply 24. Arts Stock says: June 25, 2010 at 3:51 am Great tutorial! Reply 25. Koshary says: July 11, 2010 at 11:39 am Helpful tutorial. I’m doing it in my design now. Thanks a lot for sharing. Reply 26. Will creare says: July 16, 2010 at 12:52 am Nice tutorial! i find good art work isn’t easy wen using a tablet but this was really easy to follow. loads of really useful tips. thanks Reply 27. bonsaifoi says: July 28, 2010 at 2:49 am I can’t believe I have been using Ilustrator for 8 years now, and this is the first time I have realised how to use the blob brush! BIG THANKS VECTIPS! Reply 28. Blogger Seo says: July 31, 2010 at 4:00 am thanks for tutorial Reply 29. Antor says: August 22, 2010 at 3:56 pm This one is (like always) really tight!! Reply 30. crusher machine says: September 10, 2010 at 7:16 pm Cheers Rype great tutorial! I’ll be using this on my future t-shirt and poster designs Reply 31. Brett Widmann says: November 30, 2010 at 8:24 am This is a great tutorial and just what I was looking for. Thanks for sharing. Reply 32. krissy says: December 28, 2010 at 12:51 pm To the one having trouble making the shadow, I was having the same problem. After much experimentation I found if I followed the steps but before intersecting, right clicked on the letters and ungrouping allowed it to work. Reply 33. blue vivaldy says: August 25, 2011 at 10:09 pm thank you, good skills fo coloring Reply 34. wim says: June 12, 2012 at 8:10 am whit step 3 i cant shange it to presure pls rply Reply 35. Sergio Arboleda says: July 1, 2012 at 2:02 pm This is my version… http://goo.gl/c4xpD Reply Trackbacks/Pingbacks 1. Mikey Promo Blog » Vector & Pen Tablet Tutorial says: April 24, 2010 at 3:02 am [...] at the finished design how to achieve that result on my own. However… the other day I found this tutorial over at Vectips.com. Vector design is still a field I try to develop and I love the fact that this [...] Reply 2. Best Of Web And Design In April 2010 | Creative Nerds says: April 28, 2010 at 5:02 pm [...] Create a Grimy Text Treatment with a Pen Tablet [...] Reply 3. Creative Bookmarks: Best of April 2010 | Tutorial9 says: May 4, 2010 at 6:01 am [...] You’ll learn how to use graph tools and other techniques that will definitely come in handy.Create a Grimy Text Treatment with a Pen TabletIn this tutorial, on Vectips, you’ll learn how to get grimy and create a text treatment using [...] Reply 4. 60+ Useful Tutorials From Around The Web | designrfix.com says: May 5, 2010 at 7:36 pm [...] Create a Grimy Text Treatment with a Pen Tablet in Illustrator Create a Grimy Text Treatment with a Pen Tablet in Illustrator [...] Reply 5. 21 High Quality Illustrator Tutorials to Follow | Flash, Design, Vector, Photoshop, Adobe Tutorials | GraphicMania.net says: May 7, 2010 at 5:38 am [...] Create a Grimy Text Treatment [...] Reply 6. 30 + Tutorials That Will Teach You Illustrator | Arbenting says: May 9, 2010 at 1:10 am [...] Create a Grimy Text Treatment with a Pen Tablet [...] Reply 7. Best Illustrator Tutorials from 2010 - Noupe Design Blog says: December 21, 2010 at 4:12 am [...] Create a Grimy Text Treatment with a Pen Tablet In this tutorial the artist will show you how to create a grimy text treatment utilizing Illustrator’s Blog brush, Live Paint, and a pen tablet: [...] Reply 8. Ultimate Roundup of Illustrator Tutorials from 2010 | Vectorious.net Blog says: January 4, 2011 at 10:01 am [...] Create a Grimy Text Treatment with a Pen Tablet [...] Reply 9. 50 Excellent Text Effects Tutorials In Adobe Illustrator says: December 20, 2011 at 2:01 pm [...] 29. 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Learn More Connect with Vectips * Twitter * FriendFeed * Flickr * Facebook * Vi.sualize.us Rype Arts Copyright © Rype Arts 2011 #Vectips RSS Feed Vectips » Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry Comments Feed Vectips Shiny Buttons Without Blends or Transparencies in Illustrator Weekly Vector Inspiration #56 Weekly Vector Inspiration #57 * Home * About * Resources * Contact * Shop Vectips Illustrator® tips, tricks, and tutorials * Tutorials * Tips and Tricks * Interviews * Inspiration Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry Tutorials | February 11th, 2010 It’s almost Valentine’s day and rather than getting your loved one the same old cheap gifts you get every year, why not create a chocolate covered strawberry illustration for them? You can easily apply this illustration to your own greeting card, t-shirt, or anything else you can think of. Moreover, you can apply this tutorial to other illustrations and logos. Final Image Below is the final image we will working towards. Tutorial Detail * Program: Adobe Illustrator CS4 * Difficulty: Intermediate * Topics Covered: Ellipse tool, Pencil tool, Pathfinder panel, Gradient panel, Custom Art Brush * Estimated Completion Time: 20-30 minutes Step 1 Create a new document and create an ellipse with the Ellipse tool (L). Step 2 With the Direct Selection tool (A), grab the bottom anchor point, hold down the Shift key (to constrain the movements), and drag it down about one quarter of the original size of the ellipse. Step 3 With the Direct Selection tool (A), grab the top anchor point, hold down the Shift key, and drag it down about one eight the original size of the ellipse. Step 4 Fill the new shape with a radial gradient from the Gradient panel. Change the first color stop in the gradient to red and the second color stop to a darker red. Step 5 With the Gradient tool (G) adjust the radial gradient so the lightest part of the gradient is at the top of the shape. Step 6 Create a small elongated ellipse toward to top center of the berry shape. Fill the ellipse with a linear gradient with the first color stop a light orange and the second color stop orange. Adjust the gradient with the Gradient tool (G) so the lightest part of the gradient is at the top of the ellipse. Step 7 With the small ellipse selected, go Object > Path > Offset. Once the Offset dialog is open, change the Offset to 4 px. This measurement might be different depending on the dimensions of you artwork. Step 8 Fill the offset ellipse with a linear gradient with the same reds as the main berry shape. Adjust the gradient so the darker part of the gradient is at the top of the shape. Step 9 Select both shapes, Copy (Command + C), and Paste in Front (Command + F). With the copy still selected, move it above and to the left of the original ellipse shapes. Step 10 Repeat the previous steps placing copies of the small ellipses around the berry shape. When you are placing shapes close to the edge, rotate them with the Selection tool (V) to follow the curvature of the berry. Step 11 For this next step we are going to use the Pencil tool (N) because it is a quick way to draw paths. Before we start drawing with the Pencil tool (N), it is a good idea to set some tool preferences so we can get a smooth line while drawing. First, double-click on the Pencil tool (N) in the Tools panel to bring up the Pencil Tool Options. The option that we are most concerned about is the Fidelity. I like to set mine at 5 pixels to ensure a smooth line. You can always play around with these settings if you don’t like the line path quality in the next step. Step 12 Now that our Pencil tool (N) is set. start drawing a shape around four or five of the smaller ellipses. Hold down the Alt / Option key when you are almost done to connect the beginning and end points. With the new shape selected, go Object > Arrange > Send Backward (Command + ]) until the shape is behind all the small ellipses. Step 13 Select all the small red-gradient ellipses encompassed by the pencil shape, go Object > Path > Offset, and change the Offset to 10 px. Step 14 With the new offset ellipses still selected, hold shift, and select the pencil shape. From the pathfinder panel hold down Alt / Option and press the Minus Front button. Next, change the fill of the new shape to a light red color. Step 15 With the Pencil tool (N) draw a organic shape encompassing the bottom half of the berry. Step 16 Fill the new shape with a linear gradient. For this gradient we need to add an extra color stop. To do this, simply click on the middle of the Gradient Slider in the Gradient panel. Change the first color stop to light brown, the second to a dark brown, and the third to your first light brown. Next, select the middle color stop and change the Location to 70 in the Gradient panel. Step 17 Select the chocolate shape and Copy (Command + C) and Paste in Front (Command + F). Do this one more time so you have three total shapes. Select the top copy and move it down and to the left slightly. Next, select the moved copy and the one underneath it and press the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Change the color of the new shape to a dark brown color. Step 18 With the Pencil tool (N) draw a new highlight shape towards the bottom of the main chocolate shape. Fill the new shape with a linear gradient and make both color stops white. Change the opacity of the first color stop to 40 and the second color stop’s opacity to 15 from the Gradient panel. Step 19 Create a couple more highlights around the top left curves of the main chocolate shape. Fill each new shape with the same white gradient as in the previous step. Step 20 Create a couple more chocolate drops with the Pencil tool (N) and apply the same gradients as in the previous couple steps. Step 21 Now we can move onto the leaves and stem of the strawberry. For the leaves we are going to create an custom Art Brush, making it easy and quick to create the leaves. To start, create an ellipse with the Ellipse tool (L). Step 22 With the Direct Selction tool (A) grab the right anchor point of the ellipse and drag it right to about double the original width. With the point still selected, press the Convert to Corner button from the Control panel. Next, fill the shape with a green color. Step 23 Copy (Command + C) and Paste in Front (Command + F) the ellipse shape twice. Select the top copy and move it down and to the left slightly. Select the two top copies and press the Minus Front button from the Pathfinder panel. Next, fill the shape with a light green color. Step 24 Select the main green shape and (Command + C) and Paste in Front (Command + F) twice. With the Selection tool (V), move the top copy up about half way up the original shape and rotate it so the points of the shape touch. Select both top copies, press the Minus Front button, and change the fill to a dark green color. Step 25 Select the main green shape and (Command + C) and Paste in Front (Command + F) twice. With the Selection tool (V) move the shape up and rotate it slightly, select both top copies, press the Minus Front button, and change the fill to a darker green than the previous step. Step 26 Select all the green shapes and drag them into the Brush panel. When the New Brush dialing opens, select the New Art Brush radial button. In the Art Brush Options keep all the default settings. Step 27 Use the Brush tool (B) with the new art brush and draw a leaf on the top of the strawberry. You might have to change the stroke of the path if the shape is too big or doesn’t look correct. When creating these brush strokes, make sure the darker part of the brush is facing down and the pointy part of the brush is facing away from the berry shape. If this is not how it looks after creating the path, press the Stroke Options button at the bottom of the Brush panel. When the Stroke Options dialog opens, you can select the Flip Along or Flip Across options until you get the desired arrangement. Step 28 Create five to six more brush stroke with the Brush tool (B) and custom brush. Step 29 Select all the brush strokes, Copy (Command + C) and Paste in Back (Command + B). With the copies still selected, go Object > Expand Apperance. With the expanded brushes still selected, press the Unite button from the Pathfinder panel. Next, move the new shape down slightly. Step 30 Select the main berry shape, Copy (Command + C), and Paste in Front (Command + F). Select the copied berry body shape and combined leaf shapes and press the Intersect button from the Pathfinder panel. Change the fill of the new shape to a grey color and set the Blending Mode to Multiply from the Transparency panel. Step 31 Use the Pen tool (P) to create a stem shape for the strawberry. Fill the shape with a linear gradient with the first color stop green and the second a darker green. With the stem selected, go Object > Arrange > Send Backward (Command + ]) until the bottom part of the stem is hidden from the top leaves. All done! Final Image Below is the final image again. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. * Digg * del.icio.us * StumbleUpon * Design Float * Facebook * Mixx * TwitThis Visit the Vectips shop! 78 Responses to “Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry” 1. IVAN says: February 11, 2010 at 7:29 am like it ;) ♥ Reply 2. Andrea Austoni says: February 11, 2010 at 8:11 am This looks great, especially when scaled down! Good work, thanks Reply 3. Eddie says: February 11, 2010 at 8:13 am Rype, you always seem to amaze me with your detailed tutorials. Thank you. Reply 4. Grafiko says: February 11, 2010 at 8:30 am Very nice! Outcome looks very cool. Thanks Reply 5. Neil says: February 11, 2010 at 9:34 am Very nice and cute example of small scale vectors. i might have to have a play and take this with other dippable items! Reply 6. Theo Hodkin says: February 11, 2010 at 9:58 am That’s brilliant! Sooo good, the final result is brilliant… and great style too! Thanks Ryan! Reply 7. Richie says: February 11, 2010 at 10:08 am Ummmm… Slurp. Looks delicious. Thanks a lot for the tutorial. It is really simple and easy to follow. I have fallen in love with Illustrator after seeing so many of your tutorials. They Rock :) Reply 8. hawken king says: February 11, 2010 at 8:51 pm some nice tips there, shame the final illustration looks a little rushed. Reply 9. Kevin says: February 12, 2010 at 4:55 am Fun tutorial, great explanation i am going to try this some time just for the tips that are in this Reply 10. Anne H. says: February 15, 2010 at 12:57 pm Really nice and fun tutorial. Thank you! Reply 11. yaku says: February 15, 2010 at 4:02 pm Great tutorial. Anyway i cant drag them into brush panel. Illustrator says that “the selected artwork contains an element that cannot be used in an art brush”. I dunno why. I have just 4 objects – paths. Can anyone help please? Thank you Yaku Reply 12. yaku says: February 15, 2010 at 4:05 pm Ha fixed :) You cant make them brush if one of the object is wearing a gradient instead of a solid color. Yay.. Cheers Yaku Reply 13. Vince says: February 16, 2010 at 7:47 am Great tutorial. Very nice to see how one accomplishes the details you created. Thanks for sharing! Reply 14. Lam Nguyen says: February 16, 2010 at 9:03 am Delicious! Love the tutorial with detail guides. Thank you! Reply 15. Krishna says: February 16, 2010 at 9:05 am YUMMY!!!…ohh, and bookmarked! definitely going to try this out!! thanks! :) Reply 16. Reiso says: February 16, 2010 at 12:13 pm Thanks for the great tutorial. Love when I find tutorials (no matter how difficult or simple) that don’t assume the reader is a master at Illustrator. Very easy to follow along. Love all the use of the Pathfinder tool! Reply 17. moon1 says: February 17, 2010 at 1:11 am delicious!! :) Thank for the tutorial! Greetings from Poland Reply 18. Paul says: February 17, 2010 at 2:26 am thats really so cool! i like it very much, shame i missed it for valentines day. but its a really nice tutorial for me to get stuck into illustrator. many thanks! Reply 19. designi1 says: February 17, 2010 at 4:17 am So dam tasty :D Great job here… i must be hungry ;:D Reply 20. PsdDude says: February 23, 2010 at 3:23 am I looks delicious ! I like the chocolate effect …Thanks for the tutorial :) Reply 21. vectorilla says: February 23, 2010 at 5:18 am nice tutorial thanks Reply 22. Web & Graphic Designer says: February 23, 2010 at 7:00 pm I’ve never really actually considered Illustrator until now, I’m more of a photoshop guy. Reply 23. tuliptree says: February 23, 2010 at 9:55 pm I thought I was a dummy at computers but I just finished this tutorial! Thanks for making this tutorial so easy to follow…! I love it! :D Reply 24. Janella says: February 26, 2010 at 3:56 pm This is a wonderful tutorial & so cute! I cannot seem to get the leaves to Minus to Front in Step 25. I’ve been working at it for quite some time & it seems to select the top leaf to fill. Any suggestions? Reply 25. Abid Karim says: March 1, 2010 at 6:14 am Wow..Its luk great…Its too gud. Thanxxx for the tutorial. Reply 26. Alan says: March 5, 2010 at 9:32 pm Awesome maaan! Reply 27. Sam says: March 10, 2010 at 11:41 pm Cool!! I like it!! Reply 28. Designebookcover says: March 13, 2010 at 12:20 pm the bottom part not look as good as the top but it is very nice tutorial and very detailed. Reply 29. Jmarreros says: March 21, 2010 at 11:13 am Very interesting, thanks for sharing Reply 30. Anita says: April 6, 2010 at 6:22 pm That was so fun to do! thanks Reply 31. Ali says: April 27, 2010 at 10:33 am Nicely Done ;) Reply 32. Soumya says: April 28, 2010 at 1:54 am This is beautiful! Thanks a lot for sharing! :) Reply + Key says: August 13, 2011 at 4:48 am thanks bro very nice Reply 33. pratham says: May 26, 2010 at 3:39 am Nice tutorial…………..thanx for sharing http://www.scrapsforever.com Reply 34. Blogger Seo says: July 31, 2010 at 3:58 am thanks for tutorial Reply 35. helmikuu says: September 24, 2010 at 8:23 am WoW! I like it. Very nice tutorial. Reply 36. Website Facility says: October 20, 2010 at 6:30 am This is really good, thank you very much for sharing. Reply 37. ALI SHAHAB says: October 26, 2010 at 10:51 am Sir, you will give me some illustrator works so i am practice illustrator software. Thanking You. Reply 38. Alicia says: December 6, 2010 at 8:55 pm Thanks for another awesome tutorial:) Reply 39. Holly Day says: January 6, 2011 at 5:35 pm Gosh! I have a thing with strawberries and desperately needed a tutorial on how to create a strawberry to illustrate my strawberry pages. Six months later, while looking for a Valentine related tutorial, I find this one! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Reply 40. Joao says: January 9, 2011 at 1:53 pm Hi there, I’m a beginner in AI and I can’t do effect PATHFINDER > MINUS FRONT. I’m using CS5 and doesn’t appear MINUS FRONT in EFFECTS>PAHFINDER, onlu MINUS BACK. Another doubt I have is when I have an object selected and do pathfinder>some effect it pop ups a message: pathfinder effects should usually be applied to groups, layers or types of objects. This may not have any effect on current selection. Can you please help me? Reply 41. Enric says: January 16, 2011 at 10:16 am Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I’m a newbie of Illustrator and I’m learning a lot from your tutorials ;) Reply 42. SammaLamma says: January 29, 2011 at 3:05 pm Thank you so much for this excellent tutorial. I am a total beginner trying to learn Illustrator in a large classroom setting at a community college. The instructor is very soft-spoken, goes very fast and will not stop for questions so when I can’t hear her or get lost on one little step I am pretty much lost for the rest of the class. Super-frustrating. I was feeling really discouraged, but this morning l I found and patiently worked through the tutorial steps for the strawberry, and I am already feeling so much better! These are really thorough and helpful and I am going to do all of them. Thanks for not leaving out any little steps that a beginner might not know. Oh my goodness I am so relieved and grateful. Thank you!!! Reply 43. Sahithi says: February 22, 2011 at 1:11 pm Loved the tutorial!!! 5 stars to the design. Looks so delicious Reply 44. Usman says: March 16, 2011 at 4:07 pm nice one, thanks very much always like to make new brushes, save too much time Reply 45. Web Design Hyderabad says: May 11, 2011 at 8:40 pm Now thats a mouth watering strawberry. I simple love this tutorial. Thanks for this Reply 46. Katy says: July 11, 2011 at 4:11 pm Great!! Thank you very much! :D Reply 47. Ramel de la Cruz says: July 22, 2011 at 11:20 am Mouthwatering tutorial! Easy to follow and very nice concepts. No wonder that until now, this post receives so many comments. Reply 48. Ankara Nargile says: August 8, 2011 at 7:33 am Nice sharing.thank you very much Reply 49. MOZO says: August 20, 2011 at 12:53 am Thanks for the tutorial. I was great help in addind to my drawing skills. Reply 50. rajesh says: August 26, 2011 at 10:08 pm hi man it is very cool tutorials thanks man Reply 51. caro says: October 22, 2011 at 10:33 pm Thank you for this great tutorial! Ima do this tomorrow for sure and I will learn a lot from it! Thanks a lot for sharing this for free. ;) Reply 52. Word Counter says: November 12, 2011 at 10:41 pm Very clear, step by step illustrator tutorial! I have created my own mouth watering strawberry, but cant eat it.. :) Reply 53. Manuel says: December 21, 2011 at 2:54 am Thank you for the tutorial. It was very clear. Reply 54. Lara says: January 24, 2012 at 5:09 pm Hey guys, I lover this tutorial, butt I was trying to do it but when it comes to “unite all the leaves” all the leaves deform, can someone help me? Reply 55. Lara says: January 24, 2012 at 5:13 pm hey guys problems solved :D thank u, the strawberry looks delicious Reply 56. JayJay the JrsPlane says: January 29, 2012 at 5:55 pm This tutorial kicked my butt. I felt like I had a learning disability. Reply 57. seeta says: March 13, 2012 at 1:57 am osam it is :) thanks a ton foe sharing with us :) Reply 58. Ara says: July 22, 2012 at 3:47 am Why can’t I send the object in Step 12 backwards? What’s wrong?? Reply 59. Kelly T says: October 26, 2012 at 5:23 pm This is a great tutorial, I’m a graphic design student but I really haven’t learned enough about vector art and I have found this to be very helpful in the learning process. Thank you so much, very good tutorial and easy to follow even for me which I am not very experienced yet. Reply Trackbacks/Pingbacks 1. 100 Fresh New Photoshop And Illustrator Tutorials | Creative Nerds says: February 14, 2010 at 5:05 pm [...] 17. Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry [...] Reply 2. Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry In Illustrator | Design Newz says: February 16, 2010 at 7:31 am [...] Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry In Illustrator [...] Reply 3. Desktop Wallpaper 006: Euphoria « Coffee Cup Stains says: February 23, 2010 at 4:01 am [...] the tutorial of this mouthwatering chocolate covered strawberry. *drool* Published [...] Reply 4. Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry In Illustrator | Vectips | Rumball Motors Interactive says: February 23, 2010 at 7:27 am [...] Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry In Illustrator | Vectips. Be the first to start a conversation Click here to cancel reply. Leave a [...] Reply 5. Best Of The Web And Design In February 2010 | Creative Nerds says: March 3, 2010 at 2:33 pm [...] Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry [...] Reply 6. This Week’s Favourites – March 5th 2010 says: March 5, 2010 at 1:01 am [...] Vectips [...] Reply 7. Early 2010 Best of Vector Tutorials in Adobe Illustrator | Graphic Design Free Resources says: March 7, 2010 at 8:21 pm [...] 4. Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry [...] Reply 8. 100 Fresh New Photoshop And Illustrator Tutorials From 2010 « HUE Designer says: March 17, 2010 at 4:01 am [...] 17. Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry [...] Reply 9. 40 Detailed Drawing Tutorials for Illustrator - Speckyboy Design Magazine says: March 17, 2010 at 5:59 am [...] Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry [...] Reply 10. 25 New Illustrator Tutorials That Will Make You A Master Of Vector Art - slodive says: April 25, 2010 at 9:41 pm [...] In this tutorial, you’ll learn tricks and techniques to create a chocolate covered strawberry but can also be used in an array of projects. Article Link [...] Reply 11. 30 brand-new Adobe Illustrator tutorials | print24 Blog says: April 30, 2010 at 5:36 am [...] Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry [...] Reply 12. 70+ Excellent Fresh Adobe Illustrator Tutorials | Tutorials | instantShift says: April 30, 2010 at 5:41 am [...] Tutorial Link [...] Reply 13. 30 + Tutorials That Will Teach You Illustrator | Arbenting says: May 9, 2010 at 1:09 am [...] Create a Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry [...] Reply 14. And Another Sweet One « Ego Lush Design says: May 13, 2010 at 8:01 pm [...] things in Illustrator that I didn’t even know existed. Again you can check out the tutorial Here and I hope yours comes out as well as mine [...] Reply 15. 30 Stunning Graphical Vector Tutorials for Improve your Graphics Skills | Dzinebook blog | Inspirational design resource for Web design - development - freelancer tips says: June 25, 2010 at 11:05 pm [...] 4.) Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry [...] Reply 16. 20+ Colorful Tutorials to Polish Your Adobe Illustrator Skills | [Re]Encoded.com says: July 13, 2010 at 6:02 am [...] Mouthwatering Chocolate-covered Strawberry [...] Reply 17. Collection of the must useful illustrator tutorials | mameara.com says: July 19, 2010 at 12:54 am [...] Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry [...] Reply 18. Best Illustrator Tutorials from 2010 - Noupe Design Blog says: December 21, 2010 at 4:10 am [...] Create A Mouthwatering Chocolate Covered Strawberry Here is an Illustrator tutorial that will teach you how to create a mouthwatering chocolate-covered strawberry: [...] Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. ______________________ Name (required) ______________________ Mail (will not be published) (required) ______________________ Website _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ Submit VectorMill * ____________________ Submit Subscribe to a feed * RSS Feed * Email * Twitter Links What is RSS? Learn More Community Images via Flickr Iron Man Jumping Jack Try Good Morning, Mr. Breakfast! Be Excellent To Each Other Berries of The Dead POLAR BEARS (URSUS MARITIMUS) VYIN-SYANG Object 704 Join the Vectips Flickr group! About Vectips Vectips is a site dedicated to Illustrator tips, tricks, and tutorials. It was created by Rype (Ryan Putnam) of Rype Arts an exclusive vector art contributor to iStockphoto. Learn More Write for Vectips Write a tutorial or article for Vectips and get exposure while giving back to the community. Learn More Work With Vectips Like the design and illustrations on Vectips? Hire Rype Arts for your next project! Learn More Connect with Vectips * Twitter * FriendFeed * Flickr * Facebook * Vi.sualize.us Rype Arts Copyright © Rype Arts 2011 GNU Image Manipulation Program Skip to page contents [ News | Screenshots | Features | Downloads | Documentation | Get Involved ] [ Plug-in Registry | GIMP Development ] [ Donations ] [ Flattr this ] Image Pipes Text and images Copyright (C) 2002 Adrian Likins and may not be used without permission of the author. Intention GIMP 1.2 introduced a lot of new features that have been further improved in version 2.0, including the ability to use full color "pixmap brushes". In addition, you can also combine single frame pixmap brushes into a "image pipe". A GIMP Image Pipe allows you to spray out series of full color pixmaps. To make it more flexible, the order the images are painted onto the canvas can depend on direction, angle, speed, or other factors. This effect can be used in many ways, from a simple way to paint repeated images, or as sophisticated texture generation. The flexibilty in the way images are sequenced and composited to the canvas on the image can make creating a image pipe to do what you want seem difficult. However, for almost all common image pipes it is easy to set them up. Example 1 Taking a set of images and making a image pipe out of them is a common configuration. The easiest way to do this is to create each indivual image as a separate layer in an image, much like you would if you were going to save an animated image. And in fact this is often a convient way to think of image pipe creation. As designing an animation of which snapshots are going to be composited to the canvas. Let's start with a simple example image, an 8 layer image. In this case, with the numbers 1-8 on each layer. This will help to make it more obvious what the various "ranks" do. GIMP versions older than 2.0 could not reload gih files (GIMP image pipes), so I include the source xcf images here. The example image. To start creating a image pipe, you will need to save the file in the ".gih" extension. To use the brush immediately, you probabaly want to save it in the brushes/ subdir of your GIMP directory (probabaly ~/.gimp-2.4). To save the image you will be presented with a save dialog for the GIH plugin. (Image above) For a simple image like this, the only values you usually need to change are "Spacing", The "Number of Cells", the number of "Ranks", and the "selection" for each rank. Spacing is pretty much the same as for regular brushes. It indicates what percentage of a brush width or height that the cursor moves between each time the shape is pasted. Ranks indicates how many levels of variation to use by the Selection values. For this image, the value of ranks should be equal to the number of images in the stack. Since it is possible to have multi-dimensional pipes, there needs to be a way to set more than one rank. For this example, we are going to choose to select from the rank using method "incremental". This essentially means that the images will be selected in the order they are in the layer stack. Other options include: Random: selects the images in a random order. Angular: selects the images based on the angle the brush is moving at. Velocity: selects the images based on the velocity the brush is moving at. Pressure: selects the images based on the pressure of the brush (requires a pressure sensitive tablet) xtilt: selects the images based on the xtilt (also requires a tablet) ytilt: selects the images based on the ytilt (also requires a tablet) After saving the image, you can "refresh" the brush list and then select the new image. For an example of what this can do, tale a look at the example image above (also making use of the fun gradient brushes). Example 2 Tater Tots! This pipe is a good example of making a image pipe out of a series of images. Each layer has a a bit of an image cut out and placed on a transparent background. Any areas that are transparent in the image will be transparent in the brush as well. To add a bit more of a "3D" effect, a slight drop shadow was added to each layer in the image. Save this image as gih with the parameters as indicated in the following screenshot. An example of the use of this image: Example 3 An example of a two dimensional pipe A interesting use for image pipes would be to simulate a natural media saturation. For example, maybe a brush that has ten different versions that correlate to tablet pressure. For this example, I'll use a somewhat contrived example for simplicity sake. It will use the "angular" parameter in for per layer dimension, and a "random" parameter to select which of the multiple images to use. I use this in a couple of brushes to "humanize" the output. Instead of having the same image stamped out over and over, it varies a little randomly. The example source image is a 8 layer image, with each layer split in two with a guide. The guide isnt require but it makes it easier to create. A screenshot of the layers dialog showing creation of an image of this type.(Image above) You will want to save the image with the values show here: Example 4 Using a image pipe as a way to generate textures. Making tileable textures with gradient brushes is a tutorial on how to generate textures with just graident brushes. A lot of the same techniques that are used there can be used Image Pipes as well. The main advantage to using image pipes is that the brush as well as the color can change as you paint, which adds an extra dimension to the textures. For this example, it is just another one brush per layer situation. The example source image is available. The image is saved with the paramaters as in image above. Example output: Example 5 Converting a PSP image tube to a GIMP Image Pipe There are lots of "Image Tubes" created with and for Paint Shop Pro available on the internet. GIMP can load these files and save them as GIMP image pipes. Unfortunately, unless you really like pictures of teddy bears, puppy dogs, and unicorns, finding good PSP Tubes isnt so easy. There is a .tub loader plugin in GIMP that you can use to load .tub files you find on the net. Then you can turn around and save these files as a .gih file. We are going to start with a .tub file available from Hood's PSP Tubes, in this case the Fireball example. Hood's site is not available anymore but you may be able to find "HFireball.zip" or "H Fireball.tub" on several sites distributing PSP Tubes. The file needs to be loaded as a regular image, then saved as a gih image. Sometimes you may need to make some best guesses as to the save parameters. An example of what the image window will look like after initially loading the .tub file is shown above. Saving this file as a .gih file, and using the paramaters as shown in: The original tutorial can be found here. * Features * Release Notes * Wiki * Screenshots * Downloads * Documentation * FAQ * Books * Tutorials * Mailing Lists * IRC * History * Splash Archive * Links * Get Involved * Donating * Bug Reports * GIMP Goods © 2001-2012 The GIMP Team GIMP News Feed | Contacting Us Tutorial © 2002 Adrian Likins (adrian) adrian@gimp.org GNU Image Manipulation Program Skip to page contents [ News | Screenshots | Features | Downloads | Documentation | Get Involved ] [ Plug-in Registry | GIMP Development ] [ Donations ] [ Flattr this ] Creating Icons Text and images Copyright (C) 2002 Jakub Steiner and may not be used without permission of the author. Intention Almost every desktop enviroment I've seen has a special application for creating icons, usually a very limited drawing application. In this short tutorial, we'll show you how GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) can help you create icons for your desktop. Before You Begin As with any new task, it will help to have a little background information: Filenames and Structure GIMP enables you to save compressed files and work with them transparently, using the .xcf format. However, since we're working with very small files, compression simply doesn't save enough space to justify the effort. Especially since filemanagers like Nautilus have problems with creating thumbnails for compressed images, it's best to accompany any .xcf files you produce with a .png version. (See Image above) Nautilus (gnome-vfs) can't yet handle compressed GIMP native files Choosing a Color Palette You may think palettes are only necessary in special cases like indexing colors of web images. However, if you're going to create more than one icon, having a pre-selected palette can give your icons a more consistent look and feel. You may want to consider using a palette that already exists. Many operating systems like MS Windows or MacOS have a system-wide color palette that is used on low color depth screens. You could also use one of the palettes that Tuomas Kuosmanen has included in his public palettes list. If you prefer to create your own palette, it's best to just define the most basic colors. That is, focus mostly on defining a set of hues you'll be using. Later on, you can tweak the value or saturation to create highlights or shadows of that particular color. Having a complex palette with many variations will make it complex and hard to navigate. Getting Started When you're ready to start, run GIMP by selecting Applications -> Graphics -> GIMP Image Editor from your menu panel, or typing gimp at the command line. If you haven't used GIMP before, the default window layout may be a little confusing. It's a lot like Photoshop and other similar applications, in that it uses a large number of dialogs. Select items from the File -> Dialogs menu to choose which dialog windows you'd like to have open and which ones you'd like to have closed. For icon work, you may find it most convenient to use the main window, plus the palette and layers dialogs, and of course the actual image you're working on. To create a new image file, press Ctrl+N. Select a 48x48 pixel image, the standard Gnome icon size. Because working on such a tiny pixmap requires a lot of detail, zoom in to work on a pixel-by-pixel level. Try 8:1 magnification ( View -> Zoom -> 8:1). At that magnification, however, you will begin to lose perspective. It's best to keep an additional window open with an unmagnified view, so you can see what your icon will look like. To do that, choose View -> New view from the image context menu (the little arrow in the upper left side of the window). Use a 1:1 zoom on this view, so that you can paint at an 8:1 zoom and see the results immediately. Make sure to turn off the selection decorations on the 1:1 window. To do that, focus the window and press Ctrl+T or choose View -> Toggle selection. A Few Tricks It seems at first that creating an icon is incredibly restrictive. After all, you have just a tiny grid where you will soon run out of pixels. However, there are a few tricks you can use to fool the human eye and make your icons look better. Basically, you'll be simulating or implying shape with color value and opacity. Antialiasing One of the basic aspects of bitmap images is the negative effect of Aliasing. Although many tools like the brush tool work well in large images, they aren't effective at the icon size. In particular, drawing with a 1x1 pixel brush doesn't behave as well as could be hoped. The solution is to anti-alias manually. Some people prefer to work at a higher resolution, with full anti-aliasing, and then scale down, but the icon loses smoothness and most of the benefit of the larger size. In the end, it's necessary to touch up the image manually. In most cases, you're better off starting with just your 48x48 square and not scaling. As much as it sounds hard, manual anti-aliasing is easy, and even fun. All you need for this is the opacity setting of the pencil tool. Say we have an outline that's aliased (Like the image to the left). Select a 1x1 brush and set the opacity to something like 40%. When you start drawing with this black brush by clicking on the white surface, it will become light gray. One more click and it gets darker. That way you can easily create fluent transitions between the two border colors. You can also change the active color using Ctrl-leftMB or just by swapping forground and background colors (X). If you're using layers to have more freedom experimenting, you will find the erase tool as useful for anti-aliasing as the pencil (Right image). Make sure you turn on the hard edges option, for maximum precision. Shading with Gradients You can use gradients to enhance the shape of an object. For round objects, choose a radial gradient, and for curves, use a linear gradient. For filling surfaces, you'll want to use linear gradients almost every time. Even when the surface is supposed to be flat, a slight gradient adds realism. Make sure to keep the gradient subtle, though: too much of a difference between the two extremes and you'll ruin the effect. Highlights and Shadows For any given object, make sure you experiment a little with highlights and shadows, and not just the regular drop shadow used on most Gnome icons. Try giving your icon real material properties with some light reflections. Whether it's just a little gleam or shine from a corner or a suggestion of depth by lowering the saturation or value of a corner in the back, you can improve the look of an icon with just a little work. For smooth shading, select the area you want to work with and then apply the airbrush tool. You'll only affect the selection, so you don't have to worry about overspray. To do hard highlights, use the one pixel pencil tool and, as before, a lowered opacity for the color. Work Example In this small tutorial, Ximian artist Jakub Steiner will demonstrate most of the techniques described in the section called "A Few Tricks" as he draws a TV icon. Basic Shape Normally, you'd use the bezier tool for shape editing, but a TV silhouette is simple enough that we'll just start with the rectangle selection tool. Create a separate foreground layer for the shape, and choose a light, but not completely white, color for the background layer. After you're done with the icon, you can drag colors from the palette to the background layer to make sure that the icon looks right on any background. Drag the black preview rectangle from the toolbox, or press Ctrl-+ to fill the silhouette. You should have a black square on a light background. Then, use the eraser tool to smooth the edges of the square so that the shape is better. This will also add a slight white shine to the corners of the image. Making it Plastic Next, we're going to use alpha blending of a selection to give a more three dimensional appearance to the silhouette. Select the TV silhouette by right-clicking on the layer in the layer window and choosing Alpha to Selection. Shrink the selection by 1 pixel and fill it with a linear gradient similar to the image above. Now you have a dark grey shape with a black outline, and slightly shiny corners. Now it's time to add a bit more depth, using the highlight trick from the section called "Highlights And Shadows". Use a white 1x1 pencil to create highlights, and a black one to create shadows. By setting opacity of the brush to something like 20% you can get results similar to the image above. Modelling the Screen Of course, a television isn't just a single square with an outline. You can create the screen exactly the same way you did the TV silhouette. Create a new layer, and add a smaller rectangular selection, positioned inside the television one. Fill it with black, shrink the selection by 1 pixel and finally fill it with linear gradient to form a screen like the one shown in image above. An important aspect of glass surfaces is the reflection. To make the television screen look shiny and reflective, shrink the selection by another pixel and create a new layer. Now, pick the airbrush tool and a mid-sized fuzzy brush. Paint a white reflection like the one in image above. If you want to create horizontal monitor lines on the screen, you can use the interlace effect. To do so, create a new layer above the current one. Render white horizontal lines with Filters -> Render -> Pattern -> Grid. Make sure you set the layer mode to Overlay. After that, you'll want to create buttons. This is relatively simple: just create a circular selection with the elipse tool and fill it with radial gradient (image above). Choosing a gradient instead of a solid fill provides a bit of shine to the button, so even if it's just a few pixels across, it looks distinct and three dimensional. Modelling the Remote Control This time we'll use the bezier selection tool to create the outline of an object. With a small shape, it can sometimes be difficult to use the bezier tool, it's hard to create a small shape, because the nodes snap to the pixel grid, but it's worth the effort because it makes the shape look sharp, like the one above. You can look in the GIMP manual for more information about editing bezier paths and working with the bezier tool. To create a shadow for the remote, copy the path window and moving just one node. The shadow in this image is done exactly this way. You can make almost any image, especially a small one, easier to understand by adding black object outlines to enhance contrast. To do this, you'll use the opposite of technique you used to create the television silhouette with its outline. First, right-click on the remote control layer and select Layers -> Alpha to selection. Create a new empty layer below the remote control layer. Increase the size of the selection by 1 pixel, and fill the selection with black. GIMP may not grow that selection perfectly, and you will probably have to alter the result manually. In this case, we'll use the erase tool with a 1x1 pixel brush, and opacity between 60 and 70 percent. Choose the "draw straight lines" option, and smooth the outline by drawing close to the border of the object. Now, to make the object a little more realistic, we'll use our highlight trick. Use the pencil tool with a 1x1 pixel brush and opacity set quite low, near 20%. The result makes the object very real. To create buttons on the remote control, use the same technique as you did to create the button on the TV: Make a selection with the bezeier tool, then fill it with a gradient, and apply highlights and shadows with the pencil tool as needed. Adding Glow For extra realism you can add a TV glow. Create a layer above the screen, but below the remote. Create a rectangular selection of the screen, then increase its size by 6 pixels and fill it with blue. Now, shrink that selection by 3 pixels and fill with white. Deselect the are with Ctrl-Shift-A and apply Filter -> Blur -> Gaussian Blur RLE by about 5 pixels. Now set the layer mode to overlay, creating the transparency effect. The Final Product Now, you've got a final product: a television, with remote. * Features * Release Notes * Wiki * Screenshots * Downloads * Documentation * FAQ * Books * Tutorials * Mailing Lists * IRC * History * Splash Archive * Links * Get Involved * Donating * Bug Reports * GIMP Goods © 2001-2012 The GIMP Team GIMP News Feed | Contacting Us Tutorial © 2002 Jakub Steiner (jimmac) jimmac@ximian.com * Home * Articles * Tutorials * Profile * Login / Sign Up [linux-org-logo.png] Search * (*) Articles * ( ) Tutorials * ( ) Entire Site ____________________ Go [peek.png] * Home * Articles * Tutorials * Profile * Login / Sign Up [comment-arrow.png] # __________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ [BUTTON Input] (not implemented)______________ [BUTTON Input] (not implemented)______ Comment goes here You should log in and post some comments! The link is up there in the toolbar. Go nuts! Programming in Linux Linux and CVS Checking for damage with rootkit hunter Tools for Programming At the risk of starting a flame war with Vi lovers, I'm an unconditional Emacs fan. For me, Emacs is the ideal editor for doing any kind of programming work. There are several add-ons for Emacs that will make your life much easier. One of them is Espen Skoglund's auto-header.el. This will create a header for your code files which Emacs will automatically populate with necessary information. It will also update the header each time you make changes. It's something that comes in really handy for me. I have a subdirectory in my home directory for emacs odds and ends. I just placed auto-header.el in this directory and then modified my .emacs file like so: (add-to-list 'load-path "~/elisp/") (require 'auto-header) There is a section of the auto-header.el file that defines the characters that are used for commented areas for different programming languages. The headers for the file need to be inside a commented region at the beginning of your source code file. The file includes 20 different programming languages, but PHP, which I use a lot, is missing. So I just added an entry for it between Perl and Postscript: (perl-mode . ("#" "" "##" "#")) (php-mode . ("/*" "*/" " *" "*")) (postscript-mode . ("%" "" "%%" "%")) Now, my files begin with a nice, auto-updating header that looks like this: /********************************************************************* * Filename: listing.php * Description: Script to list stuff * Author: Michael Jordan * Created at: Tue Nov 29 20:13:14 2005 * Modified by: Michael Jordan * Modified at: Tue Nov 29 22:58:56 2005 ********************************************************************/ Actually, you can add more info to this header. Just consult the comments in the auto-header.el file itself for more information on that. Programming Languages and Linux The is a virtual smorgasbord of programming language compilers available for Linux. Just the famous gcc compiler itself will create binaries for code written in, C++, Fortran and ADA as well as interpreting Java code. There are freely available compilers for other popular programming languages like Pascal, COBOL and Lisp. As you can see, there are really too many to go into all of them in any depth. Besides, this writer can't program in the vast majority of them anyway. But in this lesson, we will be looking at some of the most common scripting languages that run under Linux. Programming with BASH Thought it might sound like it, BASH isn't one of those captions that pop up (along with Ooff! and Biff!) when Batman and Robin are fighting the bad guys on the old 60's TV show. BASH actually stands for Bourne Again Shell. The reason for the name goes back to Steve Bourne who wrote the original Bourne Shell for Unix. When the GNU created a Free Software equivalent, they named it after Steve's shell and added a little pun on his last name. If you're a system administrator, making BASH scripts is going to be one of those mandatory things. But far from being a chore, you'll learn that it's going to make your work and your life a whole lot easier. Our First BASH Script The first thing that a BASH script needs is the proverbial 'shebang'. These are two characters: #! Following this, you should include the path to the BASH interpreter. So the first line of your script should look like this: #!/bin/bash If your default shell is BASH, the line: #!/bin/sh does the same thing. It's just a symbolic link to /bin/bash. But if your default shell isn't BASH, you won't be invoking /bin/bash if your write a shell script with that first line. Since on Linux systems, BASH is normally the default shell, you'll see most BASH scripts start with #!/bin/sh From there on, you're free to do what the shell allows. Shell scripts created for administration purposes (which are the majority of scripts) are made up of lines that invoke other commands. Let's look at a simple example. Let's say you have email users on your system but you don't have a quota in place. Still, you want to monitor the sizes of the mailboxes to make sure that people aren't taking up more space than they should. This script, run from crontab, would do the trick nicely: Except for the shebang, comment lines start with # #!/bin/sh # show us the size of email spools email spools # date in YYYY-MM-DD format today=`date +%Y-%m-%0e`; # subject and recipient variables subject="Mailcheck"; sendto="admin@linux.ork"; cd /var/spool/mail ls -lSh | awk '{print $5, $9}' | grep "(G|M)" | mail -s $subject-$today $sendto # end script First off, you'll see that we've declared some variables. These variables are not prefixed by any characters when declared but they are prefixed by the dollar sign ($) when used. You've also noticed that variables can be other commands, as in this example with the date command. When you use a command as a variable, it must be put inside backticks (` `). First, the script changes to the directory where the mail spools are located. The the scripts performs an 'ls' with options and presents a list where the biggest spools are displayed first with their size in human readable format. This is piped to awk, which sorts out the size and the user name. The awk output is grepped for those spools which are in the Megabytes and Gigabytes. This is then piped to the 'mail' command and sent to the admin account with the subject plus the date we declared in those variables. The admin will then have a nice sorted list of who is using the most space in /var/spool/mail. Built in Variables Though we created our own variables in the previous example, BASH also comes with what are known as built invariables. Here is an example of a script with frequently used built in variables. #!/bin/sh echo "You are user $UID on $HOSTNAME" echo "Your home directory is: $HOME" echo "$HOSTNAME is running $OSTYPE" The output of this script should yield something similar to this: You are user 500 on penguin.linux.ork Your home directory is: /home/mike penguin.linux.ork is running linux-gnu As you can see, we didn't have to previously declare any of these. That's why they're known as built-in variables. Their use will save you a lot of time in writing your scripts. You can find a complete list of built-in variables in theGNU BASH Reference Manual Interactive Scripts Though we mentioned that the main use of BASH scripts is for automating administrative tasks, there may be times when you need users to interact with scripts. If you want a user to input information, you need to use the variableread. Let's take a look at the following example: #!/bin/sh echo -n "Enter the name of a city: " read CITY echo -n "$CITY is " case $CITY in London | Paris | Berlin | Rome) echo -n "in Europe";; 'New York' | Chicago | Washington) echo -n "in The USA";; Tokyo | Bejing | Bangalore) echo -n "in Asia";; *) echo -n "some place - but I don't know where";; esac As you can see, we've declared a variable that's going to depend on what the user types in when he/she is prompted for the name of a city. After, we have several options for each case. If the user types in the name of a city we've contemplated here, he/she will be given a message as to where the city is. If not, the script will display a message that it doesn't know where the city is. Any answer is represented by the asterisk (*) Making Sure You Have What You Need If you have to manipulate the contents of a file, it's a good idea to check if this file exists first. Here is a simple BASH routine to do this using the if command: #!/bin/sh if test -f /var/log/mail.log; then printf "The file existsn"; fi This is a good idea, as it would render your script useless if you had it set to manipulate a file that didn't exist. If Loops: A Practical Example I was a full-time English as a foreign language teacher for 12 years, so I can't resist giving you this example of a multiple-choice test using a BASH script. #!/bin/sh PS3="Choose the number of the correct word to fill in the blank: " echo "The emergency brake let go and car rolled ______ the hill" select SENT1 in up down along beside do if [ "$SENT1" == "" ]; then echo -e "You need to enter somethingn" continue elif [ "$SENT1" != down ]; then echo -e "Sorry. Incorrectn" echo "1. Incorrect" >> eoiexam.dat elif [ "$SENT1" == down ]; then echo -e "Great!n" echo "No. 1 - Correct" >> eoiexam.dat break fi done The script makes use of the 'elif' routine to sort out answers that aren't correct. You will also notice that it writes the results, whether correct or not, to a file. If you're in the teaching profession, you could expand on this to give your students a quick quiz. Linux and CVS Checking for damage with rootkit hunter Article Details Author: Linux.org Admin Publish Date: 05/03/2012 Last Updated: 05/04/2012 Categories: Basics, Linux Other Advanced Level Course * System Administration 1. tcpdump 2. Providing Services Under Linux 3. System Administration * Programming 1. Programming with bash 2. Linux and Subversion 3. Linux and CVS 4. Programming in Linux * Security 1. Checking for damage with rootkit hunter 2. OpenSSH 3. Setting up snort 4. Firewalls 5. Basic Security 6. Keeping Your Linux System Secure An Insecure World * Home * Articles * Tutorials * Linux News * Linux Jobs * Linux News * Linux Forum * Webmaster Forum * Contact * Sitemap * Advertising * Corporate Sponsors * Linux.org Facebook Page * Linux.org Twitter Page * Linux.org Google Plus Page * Linux.org RSS Feed Copyright © 2013 Linux.org | All Rights Reserved Content by IQnection.com | Hosting by LinuxPowerHosting.com A browser with JavaScript enabled is required for this page to operate properly. Download Ebooks Download JDK Search Java Tutorials Hide TOC Trail: Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing Lesson: Using Swing Components Using Swing Components Using Top-Level Containers The JComponent Class Using Text Components Text Component Features The Text Component API How to Use Various Components How to Make Applets How to Use Buttons, Check Boxes, and Radio Buttons How to Use the ButtonGroup Component How to Use Color Choosers How to Use Combo Boxes How to Make Dialogs How to Use Editor Panes and Text Panes How to Use File Choosers How to Use Formatted Text Fields How to Make Frames (Main Windows) How to Use Internal Frames How to Use Labels How to Use Layered Panes How to Use Lists How to Use Menus How to Use Panels How to Use Password Fields How to Use Progress Bars How to Use Root Panes How to Use Scroll Panes How to Use Separators How to Use Sliders How to Use Spinners How to Use Split Panes How to Use Tabbed Panes How to Use Tables How to Use Text Areas How to Use Text Fields How to Use Tool Bars How to Use Tool Tips How to Use Trees How to Use HTML in Swing Components How to Use Models How to Use Icons How to Use Borders Solving Common Component Problems Home Page > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing > Using Swing Components << Previous o Trail o Next >> Using Top-Level Containers As we mentioned before, Swing provides three generally useful top-level container classes: JFrame, JDialog, and JApplet. When using these classes, you should keep these facts in mind: * To appear onscreen, every GUI component must be part of a containment hierarchy. A containment hierarchy is a tree of components that has a top-level container as its root. We'll show you one in a bit. * Each GUI component can be contained only once. If a component is already in a container and you try to add it to another container, the component will be removed from the first container and then added to the second. * Each top-level container has a content pane that, generally speaking, contains (directly or indirectly) the visible components in that top-level container's GUI. * You can optionally add a menu bar to a top-level container. The menu bar is by convention positioned within the top-level container, but outside the content pane. Some look and feels, such as the Mac OS look and feel, give you the option of placing the menu bar in another place more appropriate for the look and feel, such as at the top of the screen. __________________________________________________________________ Note: Although JInternalFrame mimics JFrame, internal frames aren't actually top-level containers. __________________________________________________________________ Here's a picture of a frame created by an application. The frame contains a green menu bar (with no menus) and, in the frame's content pane, a large blank, yellow label. A simple application with a frame that contains a menu bar and a content pane. A diagram of the frame's major parts You can find the entire source for this example in TopLevelDemo.java. Although the example uses a JFrame in a standalone application, the same concepts apply to JApplets and JDialogs. Here's the containment hierarchy for this example's GUI: Containment hierarchy for the TopLeveDemo example's GUI. As the ellipses imply, we left some details out of this diagram. We reveal the missing details a bit later. Here are the topics this section discusses: * Top-Level Containers and Containment Hierarchies * Adding Components to the Content Pane * Adding a Menu Bar * The Root Pane (a.k.a. The Missing Details) Top-Level Containers and Containment Hierarchies Each program that uses Swing components has at least one top-level container. This top-level container is the root of a containment hierarchy — the hierarchy that contains all of the Swing components that appear inside the top-level container. As a rule, a standalone application with a Swing-based GUI has at least one containment hierarchy with a JFrame as its root. For example, if an application has one main window and two dialogs, then the application has three containment hierarchies, and thus three top-level containers. One containment hierarchy has a JFrame as its root, and each of the other two has a JDialog object as its root. A Swing-based applet has at least one containment hierarchy, exactly one of which is rooted by a JApplet object. For example, an applet that brings up a dialog has two containment hierarchies. The components in the browser window are in a containment hierarchy rooted by a JApplet object. The dialog has a containment hierarchy rooted by a JDialog object. Adding Components to the Content Pane Here's the code that the preceding example uses to get a frame's content pane and add the yellow label to it: frame.getContentPane().add(yellowLabel, BorderLayout.CENTER); As the code shows, you find the content pane of a top-level container by calling the getContentPane method. The default content pane is a simple intermediate container that inherits from JComponent, and that uses a BorderLayout as its layout manager. It's easy to customize the content pane — setting the layout manager or adding a border, for example. However, there is one tiny gotcha. The getContentPane method returns a Container object, not a JComponent object. This means that if you want to take advantage of the content pane's JComponent features, you need to either typecast the return value or create your own component to be the content pane. Our examples generally take the second approach, since it's a little cleaner. Another approach we sometimes take is to simply add a customized component to the content pane, covering the content pane completely. Note that the default layout manager for JPanel is FlowLayout; you'll probably want to change it. To make a component the content pane, use the top-level container's setContentPane method. For example: //Create a panel and add components to it. JPanel contentPane = new JPanel(new BorderLayout()); contentPane.setBorder(someBorder); contentPane.add(someComponent, BorderLayout.CENTER); contentPane.add(anotherComponent, BorderLayout.PAGE_END); topLevelContainer.setContentPane(contentPane); __________________________________________________________________ Note: As a convenience, the add method and its variants, remove and setLayout have been overridden to forward to the contentPane as necessary. This means you can write frame.add(child); and the child will be added to the contentPane. Note that only these three methods do this. This means that getLayout() will not return the layout set with setLayout(). __________________________________________________________________ Adding a Menu Bar In theory, all top-level containers can hold a menu bar. In practice, however, menu bars usually appear only in frames and applets. To add a menu bar to a top-level container, create a JMenuBar object, populate it with menus, and then call setJMenuBar. The TopLevelDemo adds a menu bar to its frame with this code: frame.setJMenuBar(greenMenuBar); For more information about implementing menus and menu bars, see How to Use Menus. The Root Pane Each top-level container relies on a reclusive intermediate container called the root pane. The root pane manages the content pane and the menu bar, along with a couple of other containers. You generally don't need to know about root panes to use Swing components. However, if you ever need to intercept mouse clicks or paint over multiple components, you should get acquainted with root panes. Here's a list of the components that a root pane provides to a frame (and to every other top-level container): A root pane manages four other panes: a layered pane, a menu bar, a content pane, and a glass pane. We've already told you about the content pane and the optional menu bar. The two other components that a root pane adds are a layered pane and a glass pane. The layered pane contains the menu bar and content pane, and enables Z-ordering of other components. The glass pane is often used to intercept input events occuring over the top-level container, and can also be used to paint over multiple components. For more details, see How to Use Root Panes. << Previous o Trail o Next >> __________________________________________________________________ Problems with the examples? Try Compiling and Running the Examples: FAQs. Complaints? Compliments? Suggestions? Give us your feedback. Your use of this page and all the material on pages under "The Java Tutorials" banner is subject to these legal notices. duke image Oracle logo About Oracle | Oracle Technology Network | Terms of Use Copyright (c) 1995, 2012 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Previous page: Using Swing Components Next page: The JComponent Class A browser with JavaScript enabled is required for this page to operate properly. A browser with JavaScript enabled is required for this page to operate properly. Download Ebooks Download JDK Search Java Tutorials Hide TOC Trail: Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing Lesson: Using Other Swing Features Using Other Swing Features How to Integrate with the Desktop Class How to Create Translucent and Shaped Windows How to Decorate Components with the JLayer Class How to Use Actions How to Use Swing Timers How to Support Assistive Technologies How to Use the Focus Subsystem How to Use Key Bindings How to Use Modality in Dialogs How to Print Tables How to Print Text How to Create a Splash Screen How to Use the System Tray Solving Common Problems Using Other Swing Features Home Page > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing > Using Other Swing Features << Previous o Trail o Next >> How to Use Actions An Action can be used to separate functionality and state from a component. For example, if you have two or more components that perform the same function, consider using an Action object to implement the function. An Action object is an action listener that provides not only action-event handling, but also centralized handling of the state of action-event-firing components such as tool bar buttons, menu items, common buttons, and text fields. The state that an action can handle includes text, icon, mnemonic, enabled, and selected status. You typically attach an action to a component using the setAction method. Here's what happens when setAction is invoked on a component: * The component's state is updated to match the state of the Action. For example, if the Action's text and icon values were set, the component's text and icon are set to those values. * The Action object is registered as an action listener on the component. * If the state of the Action changes, the component's state is updated to match the Action. For example, if you change the enabled status of the action, all components it's attached to change their enabled states to match the action. Here's an example of creating a tool-bar button and menu item that perform the same function: Action leftAction = new LeftAction(); //LeftAction code is shown later ... button = new JButton(leftAction) ... menuItem = new JMenuItem(leftAction); To create an Action object, you generally create a subclass of AbstractAction and then instantiate it. In your subclass, you must implement the actionPerformed method to react appropriately when the action event occurs. Here's an example of creating and instantiating an AbstractAction subclass: leftAction = new LeftAction("Go left", anIcon, "This is the left button.", new Integer(KeyEvent.VK_L)); ... class LeftAction extends AbstractAction { public LeftAction(String text, ImageIcon icon, String desc, Integer mnemonic) { super(text, icon); putValue(SHORT_DESCRIPTION, desc); putValue(MNEMONIC_KEY, mnemonic); } public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { displayResult("Action for first button/menu item", e); } } When the action created by the preceding code is attached to a button and a menu item, the button and menu item display the text and icon associated with the action. The L character is used for mnemonics on the button and menu item, and their tool-tip text is set to the SHORT_DESCRIPTION string followed by a representation of the mnemonic key. For example, we have provided a simple example, ActionDemo.java, which defines three actions. Each action is attached to a button and a menu item. Thanks to the mnemonic values set for each button's action, the key sequence Alt-L activates the left button, Alt-M the middle button, and Alt-R the right button. The tool tip for the left button displays This is the left button. Alt-L. All of this configuration occurs automatically, without the program making explicit calls to set the mnemonic or tool-tip text. As we'll show later, the program does make calls to set the button text, but only to avoid using the values already set by the actions. A snapshot of ActionDemo, which uses actions to coordinate menus and buttons. __________________________________________________________________ Try this: 1. Click the Launch button to run ActionDemo using Java(TM) Web Start (download JDK 6 or later). Or, to compile and run the example yourself, consult the example index. Launches the ActionDemo example 2. Choose the top item from the left menu (Menu > Go left). The text area displays some text identifying both the event source and the action listener that received the event. 3. Click the leftmost button in the tool bar. The text area again displays information about the event. Note that although the source of the events is different, both events were detected by the same action listener: the Action object attached to the components. 4. Choose the top item from the Action State menu. This disables the "Go left" Action object, which in turn disables its associated menu item and button. __________________________________________________________________ Here is what the user sees when the "Go left" action is disabled: A snapshot of ActionDemo when A snapshot of ActionDemo when Here's the code that disables the "Go left" action: boolean selected = ...//true if the action should be enabled; //false, otherwise leftAction.setEnabled(selected); After you create components using an Action, you might well need to customize them. For example, you might want to customize the appearance of one of the components by adding or deleting the icon or text. For example, ActionDemo.java has no icons in its menus, and no text in its buttons. Here's the code that accomplishes this: menuItem = new JMenuItem(); menuItem.setAction(leftAction); menuItem.setIcon(null); //arbitrarily chose not to use icon in menu ... button = new JButton(); button.setAction(leftAction); button.setText(""); //an icon-only button We chose to create an icon-only button and a text-only menu item from the same action by setting the icon property to null and the text to an empty string. However, if a property of the Action changes, the widget may try to reset the icon and text from the Action again. The Action API The following tables list the commonly used Action constructors and methods. The API for using Action objects falls into three categories: * Components that Support set/getAction * Creating and Using an AbstractAction * Action Properties CAPTION: Components that Support set/getAction Class Purpose AbstractButton JComboBox JTextField These components and their subclasses may have an action directly assigned to them via setAction. For further information about components that are often associated with actions, see the sections on tool bar buttons, menu items, common buttons, and text fields. For details on which properties each component takes from the Action, see the API documentation for the relevant class's configurePropertiesFromAction method. Also refer to the buttonActions table. CAPTION: Creating and Using an AbstractAction Constructor or Method Purpose AbstractAction() AbstractAction(String) AbstractAction(String, Icon) Create an Action object. Through arguments, you can specify the text and icon to be used in the components that the action is attached to. void setEnabled(boolean) boolean isEnabled() Set or get whether the components the action controls are enabled. Invoking setEnabled(false) disables all the components that the action controls. Similarly, invoking setEnabled(true) enables the action's components. void putValue(String, Object) Object getValue(String) Set or get an object associated with a specified key. Used for setting and getting properties associated with an action. Action Properties This table defines the properties that can be set on an action. The second column lists which components automatically use the properties (and what method is specifically called). For example, setting the ACCELERATOR_KEY on an action that is then attached to a menu item, means that JMenuItem.setAccelerator(KeyStroke) is called automatically. Property Auto-Applied to: Class (Method Called) Purpose ACCELERATOR_KEY JMenuItem (setAccelerator) The KeyStroke to be used as the accelerator for the action. For a discussion of accelerators versus mnemonics, see Enabling Keyboard Operation. Introduced in 1.3. ACTION_COMMAND_KEY AbstractButton, JCheckBox, JRadioButton (setActionCommand) The command string associated with the ActionEvent. LONG_DESCRIPTION None The longer description for the action. Can be used for context-sensitive help. MNEMONIC_KEY AbstractButton, JMenuItem, JCheckBox, JRadioButton (setMnemonic) The mnemonic for the action. For a discussion of accelerators versus mnemonics, see Enabling Keyboard Operation. Introduced in 1.3. NAME AbstractButton, JMenuItem, JCheckBox, JRadioButton (setText) The name of the action. You can set this property when creating the action using the AbstractAction(String) or AbstractAction(String, Icon) constructors. SHORT_DESCRIPTION AbstractButton, JCheckBox, JRadioButton (setToolTipText) The short description of the action. SMALL_ICON AbstractButton, JMenuItem (setIcon) The icon for the action used in the tool bar or on a button. You can set this property when creating the action using the AbstractAction(name, icon) constructor. Examples that Use Actions The following examples use Action objects. Example Where Described Notes ActionDemo This section Uses actions to bind buttons and menu items to the same function. TextComponentDemo Text Component Features Uses text actions to create menu items for text editing commands, such as cut, copy, and paste, and to bind key strokes to caret movement. Also implements custom AbstractAction subclasses to implement undo and redo. The text action discussion begins in Concepts: About Editor Kits. << Previous o Trail o Next >> __________________________________________________________________ Problems with the examples? Try Compiling and Running the Examples: FAQs. Complaints? Compliments? Suggestions? Give us your feedback. Your use of this page and all the material on pages under "The Java Tutorials" banner is subject to these legal notices. duke image Oracle logo About Oracle | Oracle Technology Network | Terms of Use Copyright (c) 1995, 2012 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Previous page: How to Decorate Components with the JLayer Class Next page: How to Use Swing Timers A browser with JavaScript enabled is required for this page to operate properly. A browser with JavaScript enabled is required for this page to operate properly. Download Ebooks Download JDK Search Java Tutorials Hide TOC Trail: Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing Lesson: Using Other Swing Features Using Other Swing Features How to Integrate with the Desktop Class How to Create Translucent and Shaped Windows How to Decorate Components with the JLayer Class How to Use Actions How to Use Swing Timers How to Support Assistive Technologies How to Use the Focus Subsystem How to Use Key Bindings How to Use Modality in Dialogs How to Print Tables How to Print Text How to Create a Splash Screen How to Use the System Tray Solving Common Problems Using Other Swing Features Home Page > Creating a GUI With JFC/Swing > Using Other Swing Features << Previous o Trail o Next >> How to Use the Focus Subsystem Many components ??? even those primarily operated with the mouse, such as buttons ??? can be operated with the keyboard. For a key press to affect a component, the component must have the keyboard focus. From the user's point of view, the component with the keyboard focus is generally prominent ??? with a dotted or black border, for example. The window containing the component is also more prominent than other windows onscreen. These visual cues let the user know to which component any typing will relate. Only one component at a time in the window system can have the keyboard focus. Exactly how a window gains the focus depends on the windowing system. There is no foolproof way, across all platforms, to ensure that a window gains the focus. On some operating systems, such as Microsoft Windows, the front window usually becomes the focused window. In these cases, the Window.toFront method moves the window to the front, thereby giving it the focus. However, on other operating systems, such as Solaris(TM) Operating System, the window manager may choose the focused window based on cursor position, and in these cases the behavior of the Window.toFront method is different. A component generally gains the focus when the user clicks it, or when the user tabs between components, or otherwise interacts with a component. A component can also be given the focus programmatically, such as when its containing frame or dialog-box is made visible. This code snippet shows how to give a particular component the focus every time the window gains the focus: //Make textField get the focus whenever frame is activated. frame.addWindowFocusListener(new WindowAdapter() { public void windowGainedFocus(WindowEvent e) { textField.requestFocusInWindow(); } }); If you want to ensure that a particular component gains the focus the first time a window is activated, you can call the requestFocusInWindow method on the component after the component has been realized, but before the frame is displayed. The following sample code shows how this operation can be done: //...Where initialization occurs... JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test"); JPanel panel = new JPanel(new BorderLayout()); //...Create a variety of components here... //Create the component that will have the initial focus. JButton button = new JButton("I am first"); panel.add(button); frame.getContentPane().add(panel); //Add it to the panel frame.pack(); //Realize the components. //This button will have the initial focus. button.requestFocusInWindow(); frame.setVisible(true); //Display the window. Alternatively, you can apply a custom FocusTraversalPolicy to the frame and call the getDefaultComponent method to determine which component will gain the focus. __________________________________________________________________ Version note: This section describes the focus architecture implemented in JDK 1.4. Prior to the 1.4 release, JComponent methods, such as setNextFocusableComponent, getNextFocusableComponent, requestDefaultFocus, and isManagingFocus, were used to manage the keyboard focus. These methods are now deprecated. Another method, requestFocus, is discouraged because it tries to give the focus to the component's window, which is not always possible. As of JDK 1.4, you should instead use the requestFocusInWindow method, which does not attempt to make the component's window focused. The method returns a boolean value indicating whether the method succeeded. __________________________________________________________________ The rest of this section covers the following topics: * Introduction to the Focus Subsystem * Validating Input * Making a Custom Component Focusable * Customizing Focus Traversal * Tracking Focus Changes to Multiple Components * Timing Focus Transfers * The Focus API * Focus Examples Introduction to the Focus Subsystem The focus subsystem is designed to do the right thing as invisibly as possible. In most cases it behaves in a reasonable manner, and if it does not you can tweak its behavior in various ways. Some common scenarios might include: * The ordering is right but the first component with the focus is not set. As shown in a code snippet in the preceding section, you can use the requestFocusInWindow method to set the focus on a component when the window becomes visible. * The ordering is wrong. To fix this issue, you can change the containment hierarchy, you can change the order that the components are added to their containers, or you can create a custom focus traversal policy. For more details see Customizing Focus Traversal. * A component must to be prevented from losing focus, or you need to check a value in a component before it loses focus. Input verification is a solution to this problem. * A custom component is not getting the focus. To fix this issue, you need to make sure that it satisfies all the requirements outlined in Making a Custom Component Focusable. The FocusConceptsDemo example illustrates a few concepts. The FocusConceptsDemo example __________________________________________________________________ Try this: 1. Click the Launch button to run FocusConceptsDemo using Java(TM) Web Start (download JDK 6 or later). Alternatively, to compile and run the example yourself, consult the example index. Launches the FocusConceptsDemo application 2. If necessary, click the window to give it the focus. 3. Move the focus from component to component using the Tab key. You will notice that when the focus moves into the text area, it stays in the text area. 4. Move the focus out of the text area using Control-Tab. 5. Move the focus in the opposite direction using Shift-Tab. 6. Move the focus out of the text area in the opposite direction using Control-Shift-Tab. __________________________________________________________________ The KeyboardFocusManager is a critical element of the focus subsystem. It manages state and initiates changes. The keyboard manager tracks the focus owner ??? the component that receives typing from the keyboard. The focused window is the window that contains the focus owner. __________________________________________________________________ JWindow and focus: To use a JWindow component in your GUI, you should know that the JWindow component's owning frame must be visible in order for any components in the window to get the focus. By default, if you do not specify an owning frame for a JWindow component, an invisible owning frame is created for it. The result is that components in the JWindow component might not be able to get the focus. The solution is either to specify a visible owning frame when creating the JWindow component, or to use an undecorated JFrame component instead. __________________________________________________________________ A focus cycle (or focus traversal cycle) is a set of components that share a common ancestor in the containment hierarchy. The focus cycle root is the container that is the root for a particular focus traversal cycle. By default, every JWindow and JInternalFrame component can be a focus cycle root. A focus cycle root can itself contain one or more focus cycle roots. The following Swing objects can be focus cycle roots: JApplet, JDesktopPane, JDialog, JEditorPane, JFrame, JInternalFrame, and JWindow. While it might appear that JTable and JTree objects are focus cycle roots, they are not. A focus traversal policy determines the order in which a group of components are navigated. Swing provides the LayoutFocusTraversalPolicy class, which decides the order of navigation based on layout manager-dependent factors, such as size, location, and orientation of components. Within a focus cycle, components can be navigated in a forward or backward direction. In a hierarchy of focus cycle roots, upwards traversal takes the focus out of the current cycle into the parent cycle. In most Look and Feel models, components are navigated using the Tab and Shift-Tab keys. These keys are the default focus traversal keys and can be changed programmatically. For example, you can add Enter as a forward focus traversal key with the following four lines of code: Set forwardKeys = getFocusTraversalKeys( KeyboardFocusManager.FORWARD_TRAVERSAL_KEYS); Set newForwardKeys = new HashSet(forwardKeys); newForwardKeys.add(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_ENTER, 0)); setFocusTraversalKeys(KeyboardFocusManager.FORWARD_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, newForwardKeys); Tab shifts the focus in the forward direction. Shift-Tab moves the focus in the backward direction. For example, in FocusConceptsDemo, the first button has the initial focus. Tabbing moves the focus through the buttons into the text area. Additional tabbing moves the cursor within the text area but not out of the text area because, inside a text area, Tab is not a focus traversal key. However, Control-Tab moves the focus out of the text area and into the first text field. Likewise, Control-Shift-Tab moves the focus out of the text area and into the previous component. The Control key is used by convention to move the focus out of any component that treats Tab in a special way, such as JTable. You have just received a brief introduction to the focus architecture. If you want more details, see the specification for the Focus Subsystem. Validating Input A common requirement of GUI design is a component that restricts the user's input ??? for example, a text field that allows only numeric input in decimal format (money, for example) or a text field that allows only 5 digits for a zip code. Release 1.4 provides a handy, easy-to-use formatted text field component that allows input to be restricted to a variety of localizable formats. You can also specify a custom formatter for the text field, which can perform special checking such as determining whether values are not only formatted correctly, but also reasonable. You can use an input verifier as an alternative to a custom formatter, or when you have a component that is not a text field. An input verifier allows you to reject specific values, such as a properly formatted but invalid zip code, or values outside of a desired range, for example a body temperature higher than 110DEGF. To use an input verifier, you create a subclass of InputVerifier (a class introduced in JDK 1.3), create an instance of your subclass, and set the instance as the input verifier for one or more components. A component's input verifier is consulted whenever the component is about to lose the focus. If the component's value is not acceptable, the input verifier can take appropriate action, such as refusing to yield the focus on the component or replacing the user's input with the last valid value and then allowing the focus to transfer to the next component. However, InputVerifier is not called when the focus is transferred to another toplevel component. The following two examples show mortgage calculators. One uses formatted text fields and the other uses input verification with standard text fields. The InputVerificationDemo and example, which demonstrates __________________________________________________________________ Try this: 1. Click the Launch button to run the FormattedTextFieldDemo using Java(TM) Web Start (download JDK 6 or later). Alternatively, to compile and run the example yourself, consult the example index. Launches the FormattedTextFieldDemo application 2. Click the Launch button to run the InputVerificationDemo using Java(TM) Web Start (download JDK 6 or later). Alternatively, to compile and run the example yourself, consult the example index. Launches the InputVerificationDemo application 3. Compare the two mortgage calculators side by side. You will see that the input verification demo specifies valid input values in the associated label for each editable text field. Try entering badly formatted values in both examples to observe behavior. Then try entering a properly formatted, but unacceptable value. __________________________________________________________________ You can find the code for the Input Verification demo in InputVerificationDemo.java. Here is the code for the InputVerifier subclass, MyVerifier: class MyVerifier extends InputVerifier implements ActionListener { double MIN_AMOUNT = 10000.0; double MAX_AMOUNT = 10000000.0; double MIN_RATE = 0.0; int MIN_PERIOD = 1; int MAX_PERIOD = 40; public boolean shouldYieldFocus(JComponent input) { boolean inputOK = verify(input); makeItPretty(input); updatePayment(); if (inputOK) { return true; } else { Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().beep(); return false; } } protected void updatePayment() { double amount = DEFAULT_AMOUNT; double rate = DEFAULT_RATE; int numPeriods = DEFAULT_PERIOD; double payment = 0.0; //Parse the values. try { amount = moneyFormat.parse(amountField.getText()). doubleValue(); } catch (ParseException pe) {pe.printStackTrace();} try { rate = percentFormat.parse(rateField.getText()). doubleValue(); } catch (ParseException pe) {pe.printStackTrace();} try { numPeriods = decimalFormat.parse(numPeriodsField.getText()). intValue(); } catch (ParseException pe) {pe.printStackTrace();} //Calculate the result and update the GUI. payment = computePayment(amount, rate, numPeriods); paymentField.setText(paymentFormat.format(payment)); } //This method checks input, but should cause no side effects. public boolean verify(JComponent input) { return checkField(input, false); } protected void makeItPretty(JComponent input) { checkField(input, true); } protected boolean checkField(JComponent input, boolean changeIt) { if (input == amountField) { return checkAmountField(changeIt); } else if (input == rateField) { return checkRateField(changeIt); } else if (input == numPeriodsField) { return checkNumPeriodsField(changeIt); } else { return true; //should not happen } } //Checks that the amount field is valid. If it is valid, //it returns true; otherwise, returns false. If the //change argument is true, this method sets the //value to the minimum or maximum value if necessary and // (even if not) sets it to the parsed number so that it // looks good -- no letters, for example. protected boolean checkAmountField(boolean change) { boolean wasValid = true; double amount = DEFAULT_AMOUNT; //Parse the value. try { amount = moneyFormat.parse(amountField.getText()). doubleValue(); } catch (ParseException pe) { pe.printStackTrace(); wasValid = false; } //Value was invalid. if ((amount < MIN_AMOUNT) || (amount > MAX_AMOUNT)) { wasValid = false; if (change) { if (amount < MIN_AMOUNT) { amount = MIN_AMOUNT; } else { // amount is greater than MAX_AMOUNT amount = MAX_AMOUNT; } } } //Whether value was valid or not, format it nicely. if (change) { amountField.setText(moneyFormat.format(amount)); amountField.selectAll(); } return wasValid; } //Checks that the rate field is valid. If it is valid, //it returns true; otherwise, returns false. If the //change argument is true, this method reigns in the //value if necessary and (even if not) sets it to the //parsed number so that it looks good -- no letters, //for example. protected boolean checkRateField(boolean change) { ...//Similar to checkAmountField... } //Checks that the numPeriods field is valid. If it is valid, //it returns true; otherwise, returns false. If the //change argument is true, this method reigns in the //value if necessary and (even if not) sets it to the //parsed number so that it looks good -- no letters, //for example. protected boolean checkNumPeriodsField(boolean change) { ...//Similar to checkAmountField... } public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { JTextField source = (JTextField)e.getSource(); shouldYieldFocus(source); //ignore return value source.selectAll(); } } Note that the verify method is implemented to detect invalid values but does nothing else. The verify method exists only to determine whether the input is valid ??? it should never bring up a dialog-box or cause any other side effects. The shouldYieldFocus method calls verify and, if a values is invalid, sets it to the minimum or maximum value. The shouldYieldFocus method is allowed to cause side effects, in this case, it always formats the text field and may also change its value. In our example, the shouldYieldFocus method always returns true so that the transfer of the focus is never actually prevented. This is just one way verification can be implemented. Find another version of this demo called InputVerificationDialogDemo that puts up a dialog-box when user input is invalid and requires the user to enter a legal value. The input verifier is installed using the setInputVerifier method of the JComponent class. For example, the InputVerificationDemo has the following code: private MyVerifier verifier = new MyVerifier(); ... amountField.setInputVerifier(verifier); Making a Custom Component Focusable For a component to gain the focus, it must satisfy three requirements: it must be visible, enabled, and focusable. An input map may also be given. For more information about input map, read How to Use Key Bindings. The TrackFocusDemo example defines the simple component Picture. Its constructor is shown below: public Picture(Image image) { this.image = image; setFocusable(true); addMouseListener(this); addFocusListener(this); } The call to the setFocusable(true) method makes the component focusable. If you explicitly give your component key bindings in its WHEN_FOCUSED input map, you do not need to call the setFocusable method. To visually show changes in the focus (by drawing a red border only when the component has the focus), Picture has a focus listener. To gain the focus when the user clicks on the picture, the component has a mouse listener. The listener's mouseClicked method requests for the focus to be transferred to the picture. Here is the code: public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) { //Since the user clicked on us, let us get focus! requestFocusInWindow(); } See Tracking Focus Changes to Multiple Components for more discussion of the TrackFocusDemo example. Customizing Focus Traversal The focus subsystem determines a default order that is applied when using the focus traversal keys (such as Tab) to navigate. The policy of a Swing application is determined by LayoutFocusTraversalPolicy . You can set a focus traversal policy on any Container by using the setFocusCycleRoot method. However, if the container is not a focus cycle root, it may have no apparent effect. Alternatively you can pass focus traversal policy providers to the FocusTraversalPolicy methods instead of focus cycle roots. Use the isFocusTraversalPolicyProvider() method to determine whether a Container is a focus traversal policy provider. Use the setFocusTraversalPolicyProvider() method to set a container for providing focus traversal policy. The FocusTraversalDemo example demonstrates how to customize focus behavior. The Focus Traversal Demo, which demonstrates a custom FocusTraversalPolicy. __________________________________________________________________ Try this: 1. Click the Launch button to run FocusTraversalDemo using Java(TM) Web Start (download JDK 6 or later). Alternatively, to compile and run the example yourself, consult the example index. Launches the FocusTraversalDemo application 2. Click the window, if necessary, to give it the focus. 3. Note the focus order as you tab through the components. The focus order was determined by the order that the components were added to the content pane. Note also that the check box never gets the focus; we removed it from the focus cycle. 4. To move the focus out of the table, use Control-Tab or Control-Shift-Tab. 5. Click the Custom FocusTraversalPolicy check box. This box installs a custom focus traversal policy on the frame. 6. Try tabbing through the components again. Note that the focus order is now in left-to-right, top-down order. __________________________________________________________________ You can find the demo's code in FocusTraversalDemo.java. The check box was removed from the focus cycle with this line of code: togglePolicy.setFocusable(false); Here is the application's custom FocusTraversalPolicy: ... JTextField tf1 = new JTextField("Field 1"); JTextField tf2 = new JTextField("A Bigger Field 2"); JTextField tf3 = new JTextField("Field 3"); JTextField tf4 = new JTextField("A Bigger Field 4"); JTextField tf5 = new JTextField("Field 5"); JTextField tf6 = new JTextField("A Bigger Field 6"); JTable table = new JTable(4,3); ... public FocusTraversalDemo() { super(new BorderLayout()); JTextField tf1 = new JTextField("Field 1"); JTextField tf2 = new JTextField("A Bigger Field 2"); JTextField tf3 = new JTextField("Field 3"); JTextField tf4 = new JTextField("A Bigger Field 4"); JTextField tf5 = new JTextField("Field 5"); JTextField tf6 = new JTextField("A Bigger Field 6"); JTable table = new JTable(4,3); togglePolicy = new JCheckBox("Custom FocusTraversalPolicy"); togglePolicy.setActionCommand("toggle"); togglePolicy.addActionListener(this); togglePolicy.setFocusable(false); //Remove it from the focus cycle. //Note that HTML is allowed and will break this run of text //across two lines. label = new JLabel("Use Tab (or Shift-Tab) to navigate from component to component.

Control-Tab (or Control-Shift-Tab) allows you to break out of the JTable."); JPanel leftTextPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(3,2)); leftTextPanel.add(tf1, BorderLayout.PAGE_START); leftTextPanel.add(tf3, BorderLayout.CENTER); leftTextPanel.add(tf5, BorderLayout.PAGE_END); leftTextPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(0,0,5,5)); JPanel rightTextPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(3,2)); rightTextPanel.add(tf2, BorderLayout.PAGE_START); rightTextPanel.add(tf4, BorderLayout.CENTER); rightTextPanel.add(tf6, BorderLayout.PAGE_END); rightTextPanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(0,0,5,5)); JPanel tablePanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(0,1)); tablePanel.add(table, BorderLayout.CENTER); tablePanel.setBorder(BorderFactory.createEtchedBorder()); JPanel bottomPanel = new JPanel(new GridLayout(2,1)); bottomPanel.add(togglePolicy, BorderLayout.PAGE_START); bottomPanel.add(label, BorderLayout.PAGE_END); add(leftTextPanel, BorderLayout.LINE_START); add(rightTextPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER); add(tablePanel, BorderLayout.LINE_END); add(bottomPanel, BorderLayout.PAGE_END); setBorder(BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(20,20,20,20)); Vector order = new Vector(7); order.add(tf1); order.add(tf2); order.add(tf3); order.add(tf4); order.add(tf5); order.add(tf6); order.add(table); newPolicy = new MyOwnFocusTraversalPolicy(order); } To use a custom FocusTraversalPolicy, implement the following code on any focus cycle root. MyOwnFocusTraversalPolicy newPolicy = new MyOwnFocusTraversalPolicy(); frame.setFocusTraversalPolicy(newPolicy); You can remove the custom focus traversal policy by setting the FocusTraversalPolicy to null, which will restore the default policy. Tracking Focus Changes to Multiple Components In some situations an application may need to track which component has the focus. This information might be used to dynamically update menus or perhaps a status bar. If you need to track the focus only on specific components, it may make sense to implement a focus event listener. If a focus listener is not appropriate, you can instead register a PropertyChangeListener on the KeyboardFocusManager. The property change listener is notified of every change involving the focus, including changes to the focus owner, the focused window, and the default focus traversal policy. See the KeyboardFocusManager Properties table for a complete list. The following example demonstrates tracking the focus owner by installing a property change listener on the keyboard focus manager. The TrackFocusDemo example, which demonstrates tracking the focus owner. __________________________________________________________________ Try this: 1. Click the Launch button to run TrackFocusDemo using Java(TM) Web Start (download JDK 6 or later). Alternatively, to compile and run the example yourself, consult the example index. Launches the TrackFocusDemo application 2. If necessary, click the window to give it the focus. 3. The window shows six images, each of which is displayed by a Picture component. The Picture that has the focus is indicated with a red border. A label at the bottom of the window describes the Picture that has the focus. 4. Move the focus to another Picture by using Tab or Shift-Tab, or by clicking an image. Because a property change listener has been registered on the keyboard focus manager, the change in focus is detected and the label is updated appropriately. __________________________________________________________________ You can view the demo's code in TrackFocusDemo.java. The custom component used for drawing the images can be found in Picture.java. Here is the code that defines and installs the property change listener: KeyboardFocusManager focusManager = KeyboardFocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager(); focusManager.addPropertyChangeListener( new PropertyChangeListener() { public void propertyChange(PropertyChangeEvent e) { String prop = e.getPropertyName(); if (("focusOwner".equals(prop)) && ((e.getNewValue()) instanceof Picture)) { Component comp = (Component)e.getNewValue(); String name = comp.getName(); Integer num = new Integer(name); int index = num.intValue(); if (index < 0 || index > comments.length) { index = 0; } info.setText(comments[index]); } } } ); The custom component, Picture, is responsible for drawing the image. All six components are defined in this manner: pic1 = new Picture(createImageIcon("images/" + mayaString + ".gif", mayaString).getImage()); pic1.setName("1"); Timing Focus Transfers Focus transfers are asynchronous. This quality can lead to some odd timing-related problems and assumptions, especially during automatic transfers of the focus. For example, imagine an application with a window containing a Start button, a Cancel button and a text field. The components are added in this order: 1. Start button 2. Text field 3. Cancel button When the application is launched, the LayoutFocusTraversalPolicy determines the focus traversal policy ??? in this case, it is the order that the components were added to their container. In this example, the desired behavior is that the Start button has the initial focus, and when the Start button is clicked, it is disabled, and then the Cancel button receives the focus. The correct way to implement this behavior would be to add the components to the container in the desired order or to create a custom focus traversal policy. If, for some reason, that is not possible, then you can implement this behavior with the following code snippet: public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { //This works. start.setEnabled(false); cancel.requestFocusInWindow(); } As desired, the focus goes from the Start button to the Cancel button, rather than to the text field. But a different result would occur if the same methods were called in the opposite order as follows: public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) { //This does not work. cancel.requestFocusInWindow(); start.setEnabled(false); } In this case, the focus is requested on the Cancel button before it has left the Start button. The call to the requestFocusInWindow method initiates the focus transfer, but it does not immediately move the focus to the Cancel button. When the Start button is disabled, the focus is transferred to the next component (so there is always a component with the focus) and, in this case, it would then move the focus to the text field, not to the Cancel button. There are several situations in which you need to make focus requests after all other changes that might affect the focus applies to: * Hiding the focus owner. * Making the focus owner non-focusable. * Calling the removeNotify method on the focus owner. * Doing any of the above operations to the container of the focus owner, or causing changes to the focus policy so that the container no longer accepts the component as the focus owner. * Disposing of the top-level window that contains the focus owner. The Focus API The following tables list the commonly used constructors and methods related to focus. The focus API falls into four categories: * Useful Methods for Components * Creating and Using a Custom FocusTraversalPolicy * Input Verification API * KeyboardFocusManager Properties For more detailed information about the focus architecture, see the specification for the Focus Subsystem. You may also find How to Write a Focus Listener useful. Useful Methods for Components All of this API was introduced in JDK 1.4. Method (in Component) Purpose isFocusOwner() Returns true if the component is the focus owner. This method, introduced in JDK 1.4, renders obsolete hasFocus. setRequestFocusEnabled(boolean) isRequestFocusEnabled() (in JComponent) Sets or checks on whether this component should get the focus. Setting the setRequestFocusEnabled to false typically prevents mouse clicks from giving the component the focus, while still allowing keyboard navigation to give the component the focus. This method applies only to components that receive mouse events. For example, you can use this method on a JButton, but not on a JPanel. If you write a custom component it is up to you to honor this property. This method is recommended over the setFocusable method and will allow your program to work better for users employing assistive technologies. setFocusable(boolean) isFocusable() Sets or gets the focusable state of the component. A component must be focusable in order to gain the focus. When a component has been removed from the focus cycle with setFocusable(false), it can no longer be navigated with the keyboard. The setRequestFocusEnabled method is recommended so that your program can be run by users employing assistive technologies. requestFocusInWindow() Requests that this component should get the focus. The component's window must be the current focused window. For this request to be granted a subclass of JComponent must be visible, enabled, and focusable, and have an input map for this request to be granted. It should not be assumed that the component has the focus until it fires a FOCUS_GAINED event. This method is preferred to the requestFocus method, which is platform-dependent. setFocusTraversalKeys(int, Set) getFocusTraversalKeys(int) areFocusTraversalKeysSet(int) (in java.awt.Container) Sets or gets the focus traversal keys for a particular direction or determines whether any focus traversal keys have been explicitly set on this container. If no focus traversal keys have been set, they are inherited from an ancestor or from the keyboard focus manager. Focus traversal keys can be set for the following directions: KeyboardFocusManager.FORWARD_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, KeyboardFocusManager.BACKWARD_TRAVERSAL_KEYS KeyboardFocusManager.UP_CYCLE_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, or KeyboardFocusManager.DOWN_CYCLE_TRAVERSAL_KEYS. If you set the UP_CYCLE_TRAVERSAL_KEYS or the DOWN_CYCLE_TRAVERSAL_KEYS, you must also invoke setImplicitDownCycleTraversal(false) on the focus traversal policy. Creating and Using a Custom FocusTraversalPolicy Class or Method Purpose LayoutFocusTraversalPolicy The class that, by default, determines the focus traversal policy for Swing components. getComponentAfter(Container, Component) Given the component that is passed as input, returns the component that should next have the focus. getComponentBefore(Container, Component) Given the component that is passed as input, returns the component that should have the focus before this component. The method is used for backward tabbing. getDefaultComponent(Container) (in javax.swing.SortingFocusTraversalPolicy) Returns the component that should have the default focus. getFirstComponent(Container) Returns the first component in the traversal cycle. getInitialComponent(Container) Returns the component that should receive the focus when a window is made visible for the first time. getLastComponent(Container) Returns the last component in the traversal cycle. setFocusTraversalPolicy(FocusTraversalPolicy) getFocusTraversalPolicy(FocusTraversalPolicy) (in java.awt.Container) Sets or gets the focus traversal policy or determines if a policy has been set. Note that setting a focus traversal policy on a container that is not the focus cycle root may have no apparent effect. A value of null means that a policy has not been explicitly set. If no policy has been set, a policy is inherited from the parent focus cycle root. isFocusCycleRoot() setFocusCycleRoot(boolean) (in java.awt.Container) Checks or sets whether a container is the root of a focus traversal cycle. isFocusTraversalPolicyProvider() setFocusTraversalPolicyProvider(boolean) (in java.awt.Container) Checks or sets whether a container will be used to provide focus traversal policy. Input Verification API All of this API was introduced in JDK 1.3. Class or Method Purpose InputVerifier Abstract class that allows input validation via the focus mechanism. When an attempt is made to shift the focus from a component containing an input verifier, the focus is not relinquished until the verifier is satisfied. shouldYieldFocus(JComponent) (in InputVerifier) When a component has an input verifier, this method is called by the system to determine whether the focus can leave this component. This method may cause side effects, such as bringing up a dialog-box. If this method returns false, the focus remains on the component passed in to the method. verify(JComponent) (in InputVerifier) You need to override this method to check that the component's input is valid. It should return true if valid, otherwise return false. This method should not cause any side effects, such as bringing up a dialog-box. This method is called by shouldYieldFocus. setInputVerifier(inputVerifier) getInputVerifier() (in JComponent) Sets or gets the input verifier assigned to the component. By default, components have no input verifier. setVerifyInputWhenFocusTarget(boolean) getVerifyInputWhenFocusTarget() (in JComponent) Sets or gets whether the input verifier for the current focus owner is called before this component requests the focus. The default is true. This method should be set to false for components, such as a Cancel button or a scroll bar, that should receive the focus even if input is invalid. KeyboardFocusManager Properties This table defines the bound properties for KeyboardFocusManager. A listener can be registered for these properties by calling addPropertyChangeListener. All of this API was introduced in JDK 1.4. Property Purpose focusOwner The component that currently receives key events. permanentFocusOwner The component that most recently received a permanent FOCUS_GAINED event. Typically the same as focusOwner, unless a temporary focus change is currently in effect. focusedWindow The window that is or that contains the focus owner. activeWindow The component must always be either a Frame or a Dialog. The active window is either the focused window, or the first frame or dialog-box that is an owner of the focused window. defaultFocusTraversalPolicy The default focus traversal policy, which can be set by the setFocusTraversalPolicy method of the Container class. forwardDefaultFocusTraversalKeys The set of default focus keys for a forward traversal. For multi-line text components, these keys default to Control-Tab. For all other components, these keys default to Tab and Control-Tab. backwardDefaultFocusTraversalKeys The set of default focus keys for a backward traversal. For multi-line text components these keys default to Control-Shift-Tab. For all other components these keys default to Shift-Tab and Control-Shift-Tab. upCycleDefaultFocusTraversalKeys The set of default focus keys for an up cycle. These keys are null, by default, for Swing components. If you set these keys on the KeyboardFocusManager, or if you set the downCycleFocusTraversalKeys on a focus cycle root, you must also invoke the setImplicitDownCycleTraversal(false) method on the focus traversal policy. downCycleDefaultFocusTraversalKeys The set of default focus keys for a down cycle. These keys are null, by default, for Swing components. If you set these keys on the KeyboardFocusManager, or if you set the upCycleFocusTraversalKeys on a focus cycle root, you must also invoke the setImplicitDownCycleTraversal(false) method on the focus traversal policy. currentFocusCycleRoot The container that is the current focus cycle root. Examples that Use Focus The following table lists examples that manipulate the focus: Example Where Described Notes FocusConceptsDemo This section Demonstrates basic default focus behavior. FocusTraversalDemo This section Demonstrates how to override the default focus order. TrackFocusDemo This section Demonstrates how to use a PropertyChangeListener to track the focus owner. Also implements a custom focusable component. InputVerificationDemo This section Demonstrates how to implement an InputVerifier to validate user input. InputVerificationDialogDemo This section Demonstrates how to implement an InputVerifier that puts up a dialog-box when user input is invalid. FocusEventDemo How to Write a Focus Listener Reports all focus events that occur on several components to demonstrate the circumstances under which focus events are fired. << Previous o Trail o Next >> __________________________________________________________________ Problems with the examples? Try Compiling and Running the Examples: FAQs. Complaints? Compliments? Suggestions? Give us your feedback. Your use of this page and all the material on pages under "The Java Tutorials" banner is subject to these legal notices. duke image Oracle logo About Oracle | Oracle Technology Network | Terms of Use Copyright (c) 1995, 2012 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Previous page: How to Support Assistive Technologies Next page: How to Use Key Bindings A browser with JavaScript enabled is required for this page to operate properly. #RSS Feed for Financial Crisis articles - Telegraph.co.uk < img alt="dcsimg" id="dcsimg" width="1" height="1" src="//webtrends.telegraph.co.uk/dcsshgbi400000gscd62rrg43_4o2o/njs.gif ?MLC=&Channel=&Genre=&Category=&Content_Type=&Level=&source=&dcsuri=/no javascript&WT.js=No&WT.tv=10.2.10&dcssip=www.telegraph.co.uk"/> [p?c1=2&c2=6035736&cv=2.0&cj=1] Accessibility links * Skip to article * Skip to navigation [telegraph_print_190.gif] Advertisement Telegraph.co.uk ___________________ Submit Wednesday 23 January 2013 * Home * News * World * Sport * Finance * Comment * Blogs * Culture * Travel * Life * Fashion * Tech * Dating * Offers * Jobs * Companies * Comment * Personal Finance * Economics * Markets * Festival of Business * Your Business * Business Club * Money Deals 1. Home» 2. Finance» 3. Financial Crisis Debt crisis: Europe ratchets up grip on Madrid The EU-IMF Troika in charge of Spain's €60bn (£48bn) bank rescue is to demand much tougher action by the country's authorities to clean up toxic debts, risking a clash that could deter Madrid from requesting a full sovereign bail-out. Image 1 of 2 A shop-keeper cries while looking at the window of her shop, broken by protesters in downtown Barcelona during the Spanish general strike. Photo: Rex Features The EU-IMF Troika in charge of Spain's €60bn (£48bn) bank rescue is to demand much tougher action by the country's authorities to clean up toxic debts, risking a clash that could deter Madrid from requesting a full sovereign bail-out. Image 1 of 2 The region of Madrid said on Tuesday it was shelving a bond auction until markets brightened. The move came after Moody's downgraded five regions, including Andalucia and Catalonia, citing "large debt redemptions" in the final quarter of this year. It expects further regional bail-outs in 2013, raising fresh problems since the €18bn regional fund is exhausted. Photo: Reuters Ambrose Evans-Pritchard By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor 9:04PM BST 23 Oct 2012 Comments Comments BNM Mare Nostrum, and other mid-tier "Group 2" banks such as Popular, Caja 3, and Liberbank, have little chance of tapping the markets to cover most of their capital deficits, according to Troika officials. They are also losing patience with the glacial pace of cuts at Bankia and other nationalised lenders such as Catalunya-Caixa and Banco Valencia, according to the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial. Brussels fears a repeat of the fiasco at Bankia, which had to be rescued just weeks after its recapitalisation plans had been approved. "We have had too many bad experiences with financial restructuring in Spain to be sure the plans will work this time," said one official. Some of the banks are assuming large capital gains on assets that are in fact deeply underwater, and are counting on a 20pc rise in the IBEX index of stocks by the end of the year. Madrid may see the escalating demands of the Troika as a foretaste of what could happen if Spain requests a sovereign rescue from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the pre-condition for the European Central Bank to start buying Spanish bonds. Related Articles * Markets fall as Draghi bond plan 'too vague' 02 Aug 2012 * Euro tumbles as Asian funds shun EU chaos 12 Jul 2012 * Debt crisis: Spain bows to EU ultimatum with drastic cuts 11 Jul 2012 * Germans in court battle to block eurozone bailouts 10 Jul 2012 * Spain sinks deeper into recession in third quarter 30 Oct 2012 * Debt crisis: ECB pledges action as southern Europe buckles 09 Jul 2012 Premier Mariano Rajoy is hoping to secure a bail-out with minimal conditions under a "precautionary credit line", but this is illegal for countries that have lost market access. German lawmakers have warned that the Bundestag will impose tough terms which may include cuts to public sector jobs, a neuralgic issue in Spain. Yesterday the Bank of Spain said the economy had contracted by 0.4pc in the third quarter. This was less than expected but may have been distorted by a rush of sales before a rise in VAT last month. "The worst of the contraction is still to come," said Ricardo Santos from BNP Paribas. Mr Rajoy's task keeps growing. Eurostat has ruled that the budget deficit was 9.4pc of GDP last year, not 8.9pc. The deficit this year is now likely to be 7.3pc, a full percentage point above the target. The deficit in the social security fund also reached a record 1pc of GDP, as unemployment of 25pc erodes the contributor base. Mr Rajoy told the senate that the pace of tightening was too severe. "Things can be done more gently, given that we are in a recession, but we won't give up on our commitments," he said. The yield spread on Spanish 10-year bonds over Bunds – the "risk premium" – punched back above 400 basis points, while the IBEX slipped 1.64pc, as optimism from last week's EU summit faded. Investors have begun to home in on comments by German chancellor Angela Merkel that the ESM will not carry the legacy costs of Spain's banking crisis. The burden will instead fall on the Spanish state. This will be 4pc of GDP on official estimates, or nearer 10pc if the pessimists are right about the true scale of property debts. The International Monetary Fund said earlier this month that Spain "must be able to recapitalise banks without adding to sovereign debt" if it is to recover. Adrian Zunzunegui from Cheuvreux said the underlying crisis was "still getting worse" as fiscal austerity ravages the tax base. "We believe the budget deficit will stand at 8pc in 2012." The region of Madrid said on Tuesday it was shelving a bond auction until markets brightened. The move came after Moody's downgraded five regions, including Andalucia and Catalonia, citing "large debt redemptions" in the final quarter of this year. It expects further regional bail-outs in 2013, raising fresh problems since the €18bn regional fund is exhausted. Mounting problems in France can only make matters worse. French business confidence plunged in October from 90 to 85, the lowest since the depths of recession in mid-2009. France has been stuck at zero growth for over a year but seems to have buckled in the late summer, perhaps because of president Francois Hollande's clash with business leaders. Firms face an extra €10bn in taxes in the latest budget. The business lobby Medef says investment is frozen and the private sector is in "semi-panic". Andrew Roberts from RBS said Spain's debt crisis is in limbo as markets wait for Mr Rajoy to pick up the telephone to Brussels. "Spain is still deteriorating 'credit' but nobody in financial markets is going to short Spanish debt as long as the ECB is standing there ready to intervene. Rajoy can hold on as long as yields stay down, playing his game of cat and mouse with the Troika. "The ECB has kicked the can into 2013 but the day of reckoning for EMU has yet to come," he said. Financial Crisis * Spain » * Finance » * Ambrose Evans-Pritchard » * Economics » * Business Latest News » In Finance » Top 10 coolest offices in the UK Autumn Statement: family tax bombshell over new black hole In Financial Crisis Debt crisis: live A police officer uses a shield to protect himself from milk being sprayed by dairy farmers, during a protest at the European Parliament Dairy farmers protest A protester holds a flare during a demonstration in Lisbon, Portugal Strikes across Europe EU budget talks hit impasse EU budget talks collapse We take a closer look at Britain's contribution to the EU budget, how Brussels spends it, and who pays the most. EU budget: who pays what and how it is spent Advertisement telegraphuk Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus Advertisement Advertisement Finance Most Viewed * TODAY * PAST WEEK * PAST MONTH 1. Britain becomes Germany's biggest trade partner as Berlin-London pact deepens 2. Revolutionary Japan is suddenly the centre of world affairs 3. UK public borrowing rises in December threatening AAA rating 4. Sir Stuart Rose named as new Ocado chairman 5. Tax rises by 19pc for UK firms despite corporation rate cut 1. Revolutionary Japan is suddenly the centre of world affairs 2. A new Gold Standard is being born 3. Blockbuster calls in administrators 4. Bundesbank to pull gold from New York and Paris in watershed moment 5. Britain becomes Germany's biggest trade partner as Berlin-London pact deepens 1. Stocks to soar as world money catches fire, Calvinst Europe left behind 2. Revolutionary Japan is suddenly the centre of world affairs 3. China blazes trail for 'clean' nuclear power from thorium 4. Waitrose boss: Britons should brace themselves for 'massive' food price hikes 5. HMRC publishes pictures of Britain's top tax cheats Advertisement MORE FROM TELEGRAPH.CO.UK Telegraph Cottage Holidays Valentines cottage breaks from £170, book before Jan 31, 2013 for a chance to win a Kindle View Energy Switching Money-saving checklist Don't put up with high energy bills this winter. Switch to a cheaper deal in minutes View Vistaprint Vistaprint, Business Cards, Business stationary, Business, business owner Telegraph offers: free mugs, business cards, t-shirts and more View Telegraph Travel Hand-picked Seven-nights B&B at a luxury hotel in Malta View Back to top * HOME * Finance * Financial Crisis * Debt Crisis Live * Markets * Banks and Finance * City Diary * Economics * Transport * Media and Telecoms * Energy * Retail News * Consumer Tips * Insurance * Personal Finance * Your Business * Investing * Savings * Student Finance * Jobs * Job Search * Companies * China business * Money Deals * Money Transfers * Comment * Alex * Fund Game * Contact Us * Privacy and Cookies * Advertising * Fantasy Football * Tickets * Announcements * Reader Prints * * Follow Us * Apps * Epaper * Expat * Promotions * Subscriber * Syndication © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2013 Terms and Conditions Today's News Archive Style Book Weather Forecast #alternate * Log In * Register Now * Help * Home Page * Today's Paper * Video * Most Popular Edition: U.S. / Global Search All NYTimes.com ____________________ Search New York Times Global Business With Reuters * World * U.S. * N.Y. / Region * Business * Technology * Science * Health * Sports * Opinion * Arts * Style * Travel * Jobs * Real Estate * Autos ____________________ Search * Global * DealBook * Markets * Economy * Energy * Media * Personal Tech * Small Business * Your Money [Print_Subs_728x90pxl_Generic.jpg] Europe Postpones Vote on Gender Quota Plan By JAMES KANTER Published: October 23, 2012 BRUSSELS — A proposal to require company boards to be made up of at least 40 percent women was set aside on Tuesday by the European Commission because of concerns about its legality and tough opposition from across the European Union. Andrew Testa for The International Herald Tribune Viviane Reding is pushing for a mix of men and women on company boards. Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice and the author of the legislation, said the postponement would give commissioners time to consider a compromise. “There is still 40 percent,” Ms. Reding said in Strasbourg on Tuesday. “But the way to arrive there has been looked at in a different way.” “The debate was very intense,” she said, explaining that the discussion on the legality of any quota was one of the reasons the meeting took several hours. The issue has divided the European Union, with Britain leading the countries that regard the rules as counterproductive and unworkable. In the hours before the meeting, commission officials had sought to overcome the opposition while keeping the main features of the legislation. But those efforts were not enough to reach agreement. Mark Gray, a spokesman for José Manuel Barroso, the president of the commission, said the body “decided to take a little more time so that it can reach an ambitious consensus” and that it would next meet on Nov. 14 to discuss the legislation. Under one possible compromise, the commission could agree to modify the measure by letting national governments determine whether any sanctions should apply to companies and organizations that failed to take steps like introducing transparent selection criteria to give more consideration to women. Ms. Reding had intended penalties like fines or the blocking of appointments if a board tilted too heavily toward one gender. The legislation had been written so that corporate boards that did not include at least 40 percent men could also risk sanctions. “Such a controversial proposal was never going to get an easy ride,” said Audrey Williams, a partner in London at Eversheds, a law firm. “To address concerns that the proposed directive could be unlawful, that could mean a significant watering down of the sanctions facing companies that don’t reach any target.” Organizations in favor of tough measures warned against wholesale changes to the legislation. “Already, the previous draft texts were excessively weak, applying only to non-executive positions on boards of the largest publicly quoted companies, and leaving the question of sanctions up to the discretion of the member states,” Leanda Barrington-Leach of the European Women’s Lobby, a private organization in Brussels, said. “How much weaker can it possibly get?” Britain firmly opposed introducing legally binding provisions, on the ground that more time was needed gauge the results of voluntary national measures. The Netherlands and at least seven other countries, including Malta, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Bulgaria, shared this position. In another case focused on gender equality, Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, told the European Parliament on Tuesday that the appointment of Yves Mersch to the executive board of the European Central Bank should proceed. The Parliament’s influential economic and monetary affairs committee voted to reject the appointment of Mr. Mersch on Monday night on the ground that it would keep the executive board as an all-male preserve. The full Parliament will vote Thursday on the appointment. Although the Parliament does not have the power to require that women be considered for E.C.B. board appointments and is supposed to play only an advisory role in such selections, a vote on Thursday against Mr. Mersch could further complicate the nomination by putting governments in the position of rejecting the opinion of the only directly elected body representing the Union on the sensitive issue of gender equality. Mr. Van Rompuy encouraged legislators to consider the “sole criteria of professional qualification and experience” in the case of Mr. Mersch. Mr. Mersch is known for his hawkish stance on inflation and was nominated by euro area finance ministers in July to succeed José Manuel González-Páramo of Spain. A version of this article appeared in print on October 24, 2012, on page B2 of the New York edition with the headline: Europe Postpones Vote on Corporate Quota for Women. 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Home» 2. Finance» 3. Financial Crisis Debt crisis: Europe ratchets up grip on Madrid The EU-IMF Troika in charge of Spain's €60bn (£48bn) bank rescue is to demand much tougher action by the country's authorities to clean up toxic debts, risking a clash that could deter Madrid from requesting a full sovereign bail-out. Image 1 of 2 A shop-keeper cries while looking at the window of her shop, broken by protesters in downtown Barcelona during the Spanish general strike. Photo: Rex Features The EU-IMF Troika in charge of Spain's €60bn (£48bn) bank rescue is to demand much tougher action by the country's authorities to clean up toxic debts, risking a clash that could deter Madrid from requesting a full sovereign bail-out. Image 1 of 2 The region of Madrid said on Tuesday it was shelving a bond auction until markets brightened. The move came after Moody's downgraded five regions, including Andalucia and Catalonia, citing "large debt redemptions" in the final quarter of this year. It expects further regional bail-outs in 2013, raising fresh problems since the €18bn regional fund is exhausted. Photo: Reuters Ambrose Evans-Pritchard By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor 9:04PM BST 23 Oct 2012 Comments Comments BNM Mare Nostrum, and other mid-tier "Group 2" banks such as Popular, Caja 3, and Liberbank, have little chance of tapping the markets to cover most of their capital deficits, according to Troika officials. They are also losing patience with the glacial pace of cuts at Bankia and other nationalised lenders such as Catalunya-Caixa and Banco Valencia, according to the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial. Brussels fears a repeat of the fiasco at Bankia, which had to be rescued just weeks after its recapitalisation plans had been approved. "We have had too many bad experiences with financial restructuring in Spain to be sure the plans will work this time," said one official. Some of the banks are assuming large capital gains on assets that are in fact deeply underwater, and are counting on a 20pc rise in the IBEX index of stocks by the end of the year. Madrid may see the escalating demands of the Troika as a foretaste of what could happen if Spain requests a sovereign rescue from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the pre-condition for the European Central Bank to start buying Spanish bonds. Related Articles * Markets fall as Draghi bond plan 'too vague' 02 Aug 2012 * Euro tumbles as Asian funds shun EU chaos 12 Jul 2012 * Debt crisis: Spain bows to EU ultimatum with drastic cuts 11 Jul 2012 * Germans in court battle to block eurozone bailouts 10 Jul 2012 * Spain sinks deeper into recession in third quarter 30 Oct 2012 * Debt crisis: ECB pledges action as southern Europe buckles 09 Jul 2012 Premier Mariano Rajoy is hoping to secure a bail-out with minimal conditions under a "precautionary credit line", but this is illegal for countries that have lost market access. German lawmakers have warned that the Bundestag will impose tough terms which may include cuts to public sector jobs, a neuralgic issue in Spain. Yesterday the Bank of Spain said the economy had contracted by 0.4pc in the third quarter. This was less than expected but may have been distorted by a rush of sales before a rise in VAT last month. "The worst of the contraction is still to come," said Ricardo Santos from BNP Paribas. Mr Rajoy's task keeps growing. Eurostat has ruled that the budget deficit was 9.4pc of GDP last year, not 8.9pc. The deficit this year is now likely to be 7.3pc, a full percentage point above the target. The deficit in the social security fund also reached a record 1pc of GDP, as unemployment of 25pc erodes the contributor base. Mr Rajoy told the senate that the pace of tightening was too severe. "Things can be done more gently, given that we are in a recession, but we won't give up on our commitments," he said. The yield spread on Spanish 10-year bonds over Bunds – the "risk premium" – punched back above 400 basis points, while the IBEX slipped 1.64pc, as optimism from last week's EU summit faded. Investors have begun to home in on comments by German chancellor Angela Merkel that the ESM will not carry the legacy costs of Spain's banking crisis. The burden will instead fall on the Spanish state. This will be 4pc of GDP on official estimates, or nearer 10pc if the pessimists are right about the true scale of property debts. The International Monetary Fund said earlier this month that Spain "must be able to recapitalise banks without adding to sovereign debt" if it is to recover. Adrian Zunzunegui from Cheuvreux said the underlying crisis was "still getting worse" as fiscal austerity ravages the tax base. "We believe the budget deficit will stand at 8pc in 2012." The region of Madrid said on Tuesday it was shelving a bond auction until markets brightened. The move came after Moody's downgraded five regions, including Andalucia and Catalonia, citing "large debt redemptions" in the final quarter of this year. It expects further regional bail-outs in 2013, raising fresh problems since the €18bn regional fund is exhausted. Mounting problems in France can only make matters worse. French business confidence plunged in October from 90 to 85, the lowest since the depths of recession in mid-2009. France has been stuck at zero growth for over a year but seems to have buckled in the late summer, perhaps because of president Francois Hollande's clash with business leaders. Firms face an extra €10bn in taxes in the latest budget. The business lobby Medef says investment is frozen and the private sector is in "semi-panic". Andrew Roberts from RBS said Spain's debt crisis is in limbo as markets wait for Mr Rajoy to pick up the telephone to Brussels. "Spain is still deteriorating 'credit' but nobody in financial markets is going to short Spanish debt as long as the ECB is standing there ready to intervene. Rajoy can hold on as long as yields stay down, playing his game of cat and mouse with the Troika. "The ECB has kicked the can into 2013 but the day of reckoning for EMU has yet to come," he said. Financial Crisis * Spain » * Finance » * Ambrose Evans-Pritchard » * Economics » * Business Latest News » In Finance » Top 10 coolest offices in the UK Autumn Statement: family tax bombshell over new black hole In Financial Crisis Debt crisis: live A police officer uses a shield to protect himself from milk being sprayed by dairy farmers, during a protest at the European Parliament Dairy farmers protest A protester holds a flare during a demonstration in Lisbon, Portugal Strikes across Europe EU budget talks hit impasse EU budget talks collapse We take a closer look at Britain's contribution to the EU budget, how Brussels spends it, and who pays the most. EU budget: who pays what and how it is spent Advertisement telegraphuk Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus Advertisement Advertisement Finance Most Viewed * TODAY * PAST WEEK * PAST MONTH 1. Britain becomes Germany's biggest trade partner as Berlin-London pact deepens 2. Revolutionary Japan is suddenly the centre of world affairs 3. UK public borrowing rises in December threatening AAA rating 4. Sir Stuart Rose named as new Ocado chairman 5. Tax rises by 19pc for UK firms despite corporation rate cut 1. Revolutionary Japan is suddenly the centre of world affairs 2. A new Gold Standard is being born 3. Blockbuster calls in administrators 4. Bundesbank to pull gold from New York and Paris in watershed moment 5. Britain becomes Germany's biggest trade partner as Berlin-London pact deepens 1. Stocks to soar as world money catches fire, Calvinst Europe left behind 2. Revolutionary Japan is suddenly the centre of world affairs 3. China blazes trail for 'clean' nuclear power from thorium 4. Waitrose boss: Britons should brace themselves for 'massive' food price hikes 5. HMRC publishes pictures of Britain's top tax cheats Advertisement MORE FROM TELEGRAPH.CO.UK Telegraph Cottage Holidays Valentines cottage breaks from £170, book before Jan 31, 2013 for a chance to win a Kindle View Energy Switching Money-saving checklist Don't put up with high energy bills this winter. Switch to a cheaper deal in minutes View Vistaprint Vistaprint, Business Cards, Business stationary, Business, business owner Telegraph offers: free mugs, business cards, t-shirts and more View Telegraph Travel Hand-picked Seven-nights B&B at a luxury hotel in Malta View Back to top * HOME * Finance * Financial Crisis * Debt Crisis Live * Markets * Banks and Finance * City Diary * Economics * Transport * Media and Telecoms * Energy * Retail News * Consumer Tips * Insurance * Personal Finance * Your Business * Investing * Savings * Student Finance * Jobs * Job Search * Companies * China business * Money Deals * Money Transfers * Comment * Alex * Fund Game * Contact Us * Privacy and Cookies * Advertising * Fantasy Football * Tickets * Announcements * Reader Prints * * Follow Us * Apps * Epaper * Expat * Promotions * Subscriber * Syndication © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2013 Terms and Conditions Today's News Archive Style Book Weather Forecast Whoops! 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Google has outlined the steps for all major browsers: Clearing cache and cookies #A to Z BBC Help Terms of Use BBC Accessibility links * Skip to content * Skip to local navigation * Accessibility Help bbc.co.uk navigation * News * Sport * Weather * Travel * Future * Autos * TV * Radio * More… Search term: ____________________ (Submit) Search BBC News Business * Home * UK * Africa * Asia * Europe * Latin America * Mid-East * US & Canada * Business * Health * Sci/Environment * Tech * Entertainment * Video * Asia Business * Market Data * Economy * Companies 23 October 2012 Last updated at 20:43 GMT Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print King says banks must raise their capital levels Governor of the Bank of England Sir Mervyn King Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Sir Meryn King: "Creditors must acknowledge further likely losses" Continue reading the main story UK Economy * The never-ending search for work * Four steps to getting a job * How to write a successful CV * UK's productivity puzzle The UK and other major economies will remain weak until banks have sufficient capital to absorb "likely" future losses from bad loans, the governor of the Bank of England has warned. Sir Mervyn King said this was because the banks' current "insufficient capital" was continuing to deter them from lending to households and firms. He added that banks needed to accept that further bad debts were expected. Sir Mervyn said only such a change could allow economies to prosper again. "I am not sure that advanced economies in general will find it easy to get out of their current predicament without creditors acknowledging further likely losses, a significant writing down of asset values and recapitalisation of their financial systems," he said. "Only then will it be possible to return to a more normal provision of vital banking services so crucial to an economic recovery". 'Encouraging signs' Speaking at an event in Cardiff, Sir Mervyn said the government and Bank of England's latest effort to boost bank lending - the Funding for Lending scheme - must be used as a "window of opportunity" to "restore the capital position of the UK banking system". Yet he said the initiative could only be "temporary". Continue reading the main story “Start Quote For what it is worth, some may well see Sir Mervyn's attack on helicopter money as an attack on a candidate to succeed him as governor” End Quote image of Robert Peston Robert Peston Business editor __________________________________________________________________ * Read more from Robert Under the Funding for Lending scheme, commercial banks can borrow up to £60bn from the Bank of England at a low rate of interest. Turning his attention to the wider economy, and with the latest UK economic growth figures out on Thursday, Sir Mervyn said the economy was "barely higher than two years ago". Yet he added that there were "encouraging signs", particularly in the jobs market. He added that the Bank of England would "think long and hard" before it decides to increase its programme of quantitative easing (QE) from the current level of £375bn. Under QE the Bank pumps fresh money into the banking system to try to boost lending. More on This Story UK Economy Unemployment * Mike Bailes, Hayley Connor The never-ending search for work Unemployment figures show that, despite a drop in the number of people out of work, many people are still looking for a job - but there are hundreds of thousands of job vacancies. ______________________________________________________________ * Four steps to getting a job * How to write a successful CV * UK's productivity puzzle * Where to find help for financial problems * High Street casualties Basics * What is GDP? * What is inflation? * What is quantitative easing? * Is inflation making you poorer? * The growing firms creating jobs * UK GDP: News and reaction Related Internet links * Bank of England The BBC is not responsible for the content of external Internet sites Share this page * Delicious * Digg * Facebook * reddit * StumbleUpon * Twitter * Email * Print More Business stories RSS * Greek striking workers in Athens in December 2012 IMF: Global recovery 'weakening' The International Monetary Fund warns again of a weakening global economic recovery, despite government efforts to stimulate growth. * French 'red carpet' for UK firms * Fixing banking too slow, Davos hears Top Stories * UK Prime Minister David Cameron walks past a map of the EU after his speech in London, 23 January EU leaders warn Cameron over poll * IMF: Global recovery 'weakening' * India urged to reform rape trials * Angry Clinton hits out at senator * Many dead in Iraqi mosque bomb Features & Analysis * Johnny Cash Prison blues Did music star Johnny Cash improve life for US convicts? ______________________________________________________________ * Man holding a pigeon Winging it Watch What if GPS trackers were strapped to racing pigeons? ______________________________________________________________ * Yair Lapid (22/01/13) Political kingmaker Rise of Israeli celebrity-turned-politician Yair Lapid ______________________________________________________________ * French soldiers patrol down the Champs Elysees avenue near the Arc de Triomphe in Paris In the firing line Top French judge fears 'new jihad' from North Africa ______________________________________________________________ Most Popular Shared 1. 1: Alcohol 'disrupts sleep cycles' 2. 2: Most parents 'lie to children' 3. 3: Norway cheese fire closes tunnel 4. 4: Massive melting of Andes glaciers 5. 5: PM pledges in/out referendum on EU Read 1. 1: Clinton to testify on Benghazi 2. 2: Apple pulls app due to 'child porn' 3. 3: Confusion over Beyonce lip-syncing 4. 4: PM pledges in/out referendum on EU 5. 5: France 'red carpet' for UK firms 6. 6: First Firefox smartphones revealed 7. 7: Helicopter crash details emerge 8. 8: Most parents 'lie to children' 9. 9: Alcohol 'disrupts sleep cycles' 10. 10: Algeria hostage's wife 'so proud' Video/Audio 1. 1: Clinton testifies on Benghazi attack Watch 2. 2: Clinton: We must support 'emerging democracies' Watch 3. 3: Experts test 'bomb-proof' train Watch 4. 4: 'This will be an in/out referendum' Watch 5. 5: Beyonce sings at Obama ceremony Watch 6. 6: Europe chilly on Cameron speech Watch 7. 7: Can GPS trackers save pigeon racing? 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REUTERS/David Moir Exploring the year ahead Last year we asserted that: investment banking dreams would die, the euro would stick together but live dangerously, grey market trading would suck life from IPOs (particularly Facebook's), corporate carve-ups would continue apace (including News Corp), and China's growth would dip below 8%. Now read what we have to say about 2013... Read the e-book Read 1. Former Microsoft executive says CEO Ballmer culls internal rivals to retain power 22 Jan 2013 2. Rape charge against Stuart Hall deepens BBC scandal 2:19am GMT 3. Steve Jobs threatened patent suit to enforce no-hire policy: filing 2:49am GMT 4. The Swiss turn on the super-rich 21 Jan 2013 5. Selfish, ignorant, dangerous: Europe's anger over Cameron speech 3:50pm GMT Discussed * 7 Sahara hostage siege turns Mali war global * 7 Algeria ends desert siege, but dozens killed * 7 Fiat sees at least 100,000 Jeeps made in China in 2014 IFRAME: eFC-jobSearchWidget Europe must help Mali against Islamist rebels - Germany IFRAME: http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fuk.reuters.c om%2Farticle%2F2012%2F10%2F23%2Fuk-germany-mali-idUKBRE89M15S20121023&l ayout=standard&show_faces=false&width=450&action=recommend&colorscheme= light&height=35 * Tweet Link this Share this BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe must help restore security in Mali, hit by an Islamist insurgency in its north, and could lend support through military training to an African-led mission, Germany's Foreign Minister said on Tuesday. Guido Westerwelle said... Email Print Related Topics * World >> * Africa >> German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 28, 2012. REUTERS/Mike Segar German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle addresses the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 28, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Mike Segar BERLIN | Tue Oct 23, 2012 7:13pm BST BERLIN (Reuters) - Europe must help restore security in Mali, hit by an Islamist insurgency in its north, and could lend support through military training to an African-led mission, Germany's Foreign Minister said on Tuesday. Guido Westerwelle said after talks in Berlin with the U.N.'s envoy to the Sahel, Romano Prodi, he was extremely worried about the situation. "From the north of Mali you need to cross only one international border and you are at the Mediterranean. If the north collapses, if terrorist training camps spring up and it becomes a haven for global terrorism, this won't just endanger Mali and North Africa, it will also threaten us in Europe." "There will be support from Germany and Europe, it is not about fighting troops but support through the training of an African mission," he added. Regional leaders and international organisations including the African Union met in Mali's capital Bamako last week to seek a response to the occupation of the north by al Qaeda-linked Islamists, but failed to resolve differences on how to tackle the growing security threat. "In Mali we have the division of a country which in fact wants to and must be reunited. I absolutely agree with Minister Westerwelle that there cannot be a direct intervention by Europe. It's a problem that needs above all to be solved by the Africans," Prodi said. "We need to look at all alternatives and not fixate on a military option," he added. Mali descended into chaos in March when soldiers toppled the president, leaving a power vacuum that enabled Tuareg rebels to seize two-thirds of the country. But Islamist extremists, some allied with al Qaeda, hijacked the revolt and then imposed harsh Islamic law in a desert region the size of France. Mali, West African regional body ECOWAS and the African Union have asked the U.N. Security Council to back an international military intervention to help Mali reclaim the north. But the 15-member council wants a more detailed plan before it will approve such an operation. The conflict has exacerbated a deteriorating humanitarian and security situation in the turbulent Sahel area - a belt of land spanning nearly a dozen of the world's poorest countries on the southern rim of the Sahara - where millions are on the brink of starvation due to drought. (Reporting by Alexandra Hudson; Editing by Jon Hemming) World Africa IFRAME: http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fuk.reuters.c om%2Farticle%2F2012%2F10%2F23%2Fuk-germany-mali-idUKBRE89M15S20121023&l ayout=standard&show_faces=false&width=450&action=recommend&colorscheme= light&height=35 * Tweet this * Link this * Share this * Digg this * Email * Reprints Comments (0) This discussion is now closed. 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Home» 2. Education» 3. Education News Ofqual: 'We have to cheat, nanny and fiddle', teachers say Teachers have admitted “fiddling” exam grades and cheating to keep up with rivals they distrust, a report by Ofqual claims, as one reveals: “We have to cheat because other schools will be doing so.” Ofqual has written to exam boards, asking them to identify schools that are abusing rules on Ofqual has written to exam boards, asking them to identify schools that are abusing rules on "extra time" in GCSEs. Photo: ALAMY By Hannah Furness 1:28PM GMT 02 Nov 2012 IFRAME: http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/follow_button.html?show_screen_name =false&show_count=true&screen_name=Hannah_Furness Comments Comments Teachers' unions have today condemned the findings of an Ofqual report into this year's GCSE exam result fiasco as an“insult” and “diversion”, which “flies in the face of the evidence”. But interviews conducted and collated by the exam watchdog appear to show teachers, under “strange and unhealthy pressures” to boost students’ grades and ensure they succeed, admitting to asking children to rewrite work and cheating on coursework assessments. The report had found evidence of teachers over-marking their students’ work, with the pressure of getting pupils to at least a grade C forcing them to compromise their professional principles. The anonymous confessions, published in Ofqual’s official report, condemn the “woolly, unreliable, loose assessment system” and bemoan a mark scheme “so vague you can drive a coach and horses through it.” One teacher accused the system of controlled assessment, where pupils are supposed to complete work at school under strict conditions, of “creating suspicion and distrust between schools”. Related Articles * How teachers cheat in the classroom 04 Nov 2012 * 'Superhead' knew teachers were fiddling GCSE results, tribunal hears 12 Nov 2012 * Teachers condemn 'outrageous' GCSE report 02 Nov 2012 * Ofqual: Children were 'let down' by GCSE fiasco 02 Nov 2012 * School text book that mixed up Jews and Muslims withdrawn 02 Nov 2012 * Students using 'sob stories' for extra marks 24 Mar 2009 Another claimed he had been instructed to cheat in order to keep up with other schools and was encouraged to "fiddle" results, while a third suggested pupils must be "nannied through every stage". The evidence was compiled by Ofqual from interviews with more than 100 participating schools, and extracts taken from the TES web forum for teachers. A separate report this week showed how some 130 schools were penalised for cheating, with a further 60 teachers penalised for 'malpractice'. In their own words: how teachers were pressured into bending the system Quote I've just read my school e-mail to find the instructions for getting the CA [controlled assesssment] folders together, and including the instruction ‘All folders must be at or above target grade.’ This is being done by either getting kids to rewrite CAs after they've been marked, or by fiddling the Speaking and Listening grades to make up for lost marks on the written work. When I've dared to suggest that the CAs should be done in exam conditions and that lots of schools are doing that, I'm told that that is rubbish, that CAs are really coursework, and that we have to cheat because other schools will be doing so, and we cannot afford to let our results slip at all. Quote The drive to achieve targets is definitely corrupting and I loathe being made to feel that I am not doing right by my students because I am not making them stay behind after school week after week to rewrite the bloody things. Quote The school felt that proper regulation of CA was well-nigh impossible and that controlled conditions were being interpreted very differently in different schools. This was creating suspicion and distrust between schools. Quote I feel I am being made to cheat. I've taught the kids and then let them do the tasks - we have to do them in the classrooms, except for those who need access arrangements, who are under the beady eye of external invigilators. I taught my kids, gave them the opportunity to make notes, and then did the damned things like an exam. Result? Lots of them underperformed against their targets. Not good enough. This work, I am told, is really coursework, and has to be at target grade, or they will not reach their targets at the end of the course. Others in the department have done marked drafts. I'm now feeling pressured to get some of mine to redo various pieces. I've voiced my objections, but have been told that the long and the short of it is that they have to be nannied through at every stage - there is disbelief when I say that some schools are doing the CAs as exams. I resent the implication that I am failing my kids, when actually what they produce is probably more accurate as an indication of their abilities than their target grades are. The sooner this nonsense is stopped and we go back to 100 per cent exams, the better. Quote Wide variety of methods for putting CA in place, such as students writing a first draft which was then given written comments by teacher. This being subsequently written up by a student. Doesn’t feel like a level playing field.” Quote The mark scheme is so vague you can drive a coach and horses through it. Quote However, the real problem is that no matter what syllabus we teach, we will still be expected to get students up to grades that are unrealistic and we will still be expected to 'teach to the test' to get them through. The pressure on teachers to get results is preventing us from doing any real teaching. Quote We have been asked to rework controlled assessments, mark them and give them back for improvement. In some cases we are virtually writing them for the students. This to me is no different to coursework and raises the issue of why coursework was replaced. Education News * News » * UK News » * Secondary education » * Education » * Mobile » In Education News Times tables key to good maths, inspectors say Children to be marked up for using long division in maths On your marks: young children enjoy some healthy competition Pupils of 11 who can't catch a ball Michael Rosen at the 2012 Telegraph Bath Festival Of Children's Literature pretends to be the dream-catching BFG from Roald Dahl Blue Peter Book Awards 2013 shortlist announced 'I’ll never have to repay my student loan' The £27,000 pensioner loophole: 'I’ll never have to repay my student loan' Advertisement telegraphuk Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus University A-Zs » University & College Profiles Degree Subject Profiles Advertisement Education Opinion » A Very Private Tutor * No matter how expensive, tuition cannot replace parental support Gervas Huxley * Who has gained from tuition fees? 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Home» 2. Sport» 3. Columnists» 4. Alan Smith Alan Smith: Arsenal must deal with Manchester United's wingers to stand a chance Sir Alex Ferguson took a few people by surprise when he picked two wingers for last weekend’s game against Chelsea. Arsenal must find a way of stoping Manchester United's in-form winger Antonio Valencia Catch me if you can: Arsenal must find a way of stoping Manchester United's in-form winger Antonio Valencia Photo: EPA Alan Smith By Alan Smith 10:00PM GMT 02 Nov 2012 IFRAME: http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/follow_button.html?show_screen_name =false&show_count=true&screen_name=9smudge Comments Comments It had been generally assumed that the Manchester United manager would stick with the midfield diamond that worked so well in their previous away game at Newcastle United. That kind of solidity seemed the best way to go against a Chelsea side that tends to flood the middle ground. Yet Ferguson put his trust in Antonio Valencia and the returning Ashley Young, presumably in an effort to pin back Chelsea's full-backs, whilst Wayne Rooney dropped off to help Michael Carrick and Tom Cleverley. It will be interesting, then, to see what United do today against an Arsenal side that also likes to build through the centre. Back to the diamond? A switch to 4-3-3? Or something very similar to the shape at Stamford Bridge? To be honest, I would guess at that final option which sees United use the flanks when they’ve got the ball. That has traditionally been their way, especially at home, and there is no reason to change now when you examine Arsenal’s weakness at the back. Because if Valencia can give Ashley Cole a tough time, as he did last week, he can certainly do the same to Andre Santos whose positional sense at left-back can be very poor. This is a player at his happiest attacking, not staying put to deny his winger. Related Articles * Alan Smith: buck stops with Wenger 26 Oct 2012 * Hoolahan and Holt key to Norwich 19 Oct 2012 * Van Persie's goals the most effective in the league 02 Nov 2012 * Manchester United v Arsenal: preview 02 Nov 2012 * Vidic return delayed until 'around Christmas time' 02 Nov 2012 * Ferguson is worse off than Mancini 05 Oct 2012 Not only that, the Brazilian’s physical capacity for getting back after a forward burst is questionable at best. Valencia can therefore match his man for stamina and speed whilst holding the advantage when United win the ball. Santos could therefore leave a huge gap if he’s not careful, forcing Thomas Vermaelen to shift across (Fig 1). To avoid such a problem, Arsene Wenger could conceivably ask Vermaelen to play at left-back, but that might compromise the centre of defence where Robin van Persie, of course, is more than capable of punishing his old club. Up the other end, meanwhile, Arsenalmust find a way of causing problems and that means getting Santi Cazorla on the ball in decent areas. Over the last few weeks, the opposition have rightly earmarked the little Spaniard as Arsenal’s biggest threat and so have gone out of their way to close down the playmaker, thereby limiting the team to fewer chances. But the good news for Wenger is that Jack Wilshere is back, meaning Arsenal now have more than one player who can quickly see the pass. After so long out, it would be unreasonable to expect Wilshere to hit the heights straight away, but he can still make a big difference to this Arsenal side. Also make a difference, perhaps, to Theo Walcott who must stand a chance of starting this game after boosting his confidence with those midweek goals against Reading. Walcott, we know, wants to play through the middle. It’s the main reason, apparently, he hasn’t yet signed a new contract. If I was him, though, I wouldn’t get too preoccupied with his starting position because someone in his role, if he’s cute enough, can end up running through on goal plenty of times. Look at Chelsea’s Eden Hazard. You don’t see the brilliant Belgian staying out on the wing. He will choose his moments to drift inside before making a darting run between full-back and centre-half that someone like Juan Mata can usually pick out. In many ways, this is an easier way of finding space than playing directly up against two central defenders who can cover for each other when you make a run. In any case, Walcott isn’t exactly restricted within Arsenal’s shape. He can always move across to get involved. And with Cazorla and Wilshere about, that should lead in theory to some excellent service, as long as Walcott learns the ropes to this important role (Fig 2). That said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him start on the bench today, with Aaron Ramsey used instead to give the team a more solid feel. Arsenal, after all, have a dreadful recent record at Old Trafford, even when you discount last season’s 8-2 shocker. While this one shouldn’t get that humiliating, Arsenal do go into the game with plenty to do. Up against United’s attacking power, the visiting defence might not be strong enough. Alan Smith * Sport » * Football » * Premier League » * Arsenal » * Manchester United » In Alan Smith Steve Tyler - The weekend world of sport, April 17-18 2010 in pictures The weekend world of sport Advertisement telegraphuk Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus More The Football Blog World Cup 2010 Football Action Photos Advertisement Advertisement Sport most viewed * TODAY * PAST WEEK * PAST MONTH 1. India v England: live 2. Roger Federer v Jo-Wilfried Tsonga: live 3. Colin Murray is not just irritating and irrelevant – he is a very bad presenter 4. Arsene Wenger says Arsenal must sign two 'quality players' or Champions League status could be at risk 5. Premier League Transfer Talk 1. Premier League Transfer Talk 2. Lance Armstrong faces Oprah Winfrey: as it happened 3. Liverpool make £8m bid for Inter Milan's Brazil midfielder Philippe Coutinho 4. Manchester United on the hunt to replace flailing goalkeeper David de Gea with Iker Casillas on their radar 5. Newcastle United £7m target Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa fails to appear at club for medical as fans' fears increase 1. Premier League Transfer Talk 2. Joey Barton and former Liverpool and Man City midfielder Dietmar Hamann in frankly hilarious Twitter altercation 3. Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli clashes with manager Roberto Mancini on training ground 4. Lance Armstrong faces Oprah Winfrey: as it happened 5. Manchester United considering move for Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard in summer transfer window Telegraph Sport writers A-Z * Paul Ackford | Tanya Aldred * Marcus Armytage | Chris Bascombe * Emily Benammar | Scyld Berry * Geoffrey Boycott | Simon Briggs * Oliver Brown | Jason Burt * Tom Cary | Ian Chadband * Mick Cleary | James Corrigan | David Coulthard * James Cracknell | Gareth A Davies * Luke Edwards | Roddy Forsyth * Brendan Gallagher | Thom Gibbs * Rod Gilmour | Will Greenwood * Alan Hansen | Simon Hart | Paul Hayward * Vicki Hodges | Nick Hoult * Simon Hughes | Steve James * Paul Kelso | Kate Laven | John Ley * Jonathan Liew | Jacquelin Magnay * John MacLeary | Gavin Mairs * Tony McCoy | JA McGrath * Giles Mole | Brian Moore * Mike Norrish | Mark Ogden * Nick Pearce | John Percy * Derek Pringle | Alasdair Reid * Alan Smith | Alan Tyers * Michael Vaughan | Shane Warne * Duncan White | Jim White * Jeremy Wilson | Steve Wilson * Henry Winter Advertisement MORE FROM TELEGRAPH.CO.UK Telegraph Cottage Holidays Valentines cottage breaks from £170, book before Jan 31, 2013 for a chance to win a Kindle View Energy Switching Money-saving checklist Don't put up with high energy bills this winter. Switch to a cheaper deal in minutes View Vistaprint Vistaprint, Business Cards, Business stationary, Business, business owner Telegraph offers: free mugs, business cards, t-shirts and more View Telegraph Travel Hand-picked Seven-nights B&B at a luxury hotel in Malta View Back to top * HOME * Rugby Union * England * Club * Football * Teams * Fixtures * Results * News * Cricket * England * Fixtures * Live Scoreboards * Formula One * Lewis Hamilton * Jenson Button * Teams * Finance * Rugby Union * Six Nations * British and Irish Lions * Home * Other Sports * Cycling * Lifestyle * Tennis * Andy Murray * Roger Federer * ATP Tour * Golf * European Tour * US Tour * Tiger Woods * Comment * Contact Us * Telegraph Journalists * Advertising * Fantasy Football * Announcements * Reader Prints * * Follow Us * Apps * Epaper * Expat * Promotions * Subscriber * Syndication © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2013 Terms and Conditions Today's News Archive Style Book Weather Forecast #Finance » Chancellor must change tack or risk the wrath of pensioners Comments Feed [p?c1=2&c2=6035736&cv=2.0&cj=1] Finance RSS Feed dcsimg Wednesday 23 January 2013 | Blog Feed | All feeds Website of the Telegraph Media Group with breaking news, sport, business, latest UK and world news. Content from the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph newspapers and video from Telegraph TV. ___________________ Submit * Home * News * World * Sport * Finance * Comment * Blogs * Culture * Travel * Life * Fashion * Tech * Dating * Offers * Jobs * Companies * Comment * Personal Finance * Economics * Markets * Festival of Business * Your Business * Business Club * Money Deals Blogs Home » Finance » Business » Ian Cowie Ian Cowie Ian Cowie was named Consumer Affairs Journalist of the Year in the London Press Club Awards 2012. He has been head of personal finance at Telegraph Media Group since 2008, having been personal finance editor since 1989. He joined the paper in 1986. He is @iancowie on Twitter. IFRAME: http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/follow_button.html?show_screen_name =false&show_count=true&screen_name=iancowie [cowieblog.jpg] Chancellor must change tack or risk the wrath of pensioners By Ian Cowie Your Money Last updated: November 2nd, 2012 Comment on this Comment on this article Next monthâs Autumn Statement could cause the Government to lose the next general election or incur a massive compensation bill unless the Chancellor changes his current policy on pensions. Regular readers may have guessed that I am referring to the mis-selling scandal that is bound to result from automatically enrolling low-income people into the new National Employment Savings Trust (Nest). As things stand, forcing them to start saving in Nest or other pensions will merely deprive them of means-tested benefits to which they would otherwise be entitled in the future. So compulsory saving will be a waste of money for them. Worse, it will be bad advice for those who are in debt by the fourth week of every month or, for any other reason, cannot afford to lock cash away until they reach retirement age. Millions of graduates might be better off paying down student debts, for example, or saving to buy their first home. The legal principle that compensation must be paid when financial advice, let alone compulsion, causes any individual to be worse off is well-established. A series of scandals including personal pensions sold to people who might have been better off in company schemes, with-profits endowments and payment protection insurance (PPI) have all demonstrated that it is no defence to claim good intentions. So, for example, arguing that auto-enrolment will reduce the burden on taxpayers by cutting benefits wonât reduce individualsâ entitlement to compensation when they realise what is going on. But most of those affected are young or low-paid or both â in other words, the groups of people who are least likely to be members of company schemes already or take much interest in pensions. As a result, it will take a while for this scandal to reach the front page or television screen. Even so, massive numbers are involved. About 300,000 people had a total of £4m taken out of their pay packets when they were auto-enrolled into pensions last month, when the new scheme was launched, and millions more will be affected as smaller companies and their employees are brought within its scope in the months and years ahead. And nearly half of all pensioners are currently so poor that they are eligible for means-tested benefits. Lest this sound alarmist, there is no need to take my word for it. Pensions expert Dr. Ros Altmann, the director-general of Saga, summed up the problem succinctly this week: âIt is dangerous to auto-enrol people into pensions unless we can be sure they will not lose all their savings in a state pension means test.â In a bid to reduce this risk, as recently as the last Budget the Chancellor said he intended to increase the basic state pension to the equivalent of £140 a week in 2010 money, with effect from 2015. That would have defused the auto-enrolment scandal by massively reducing the number of pensioners entitled to means-tested benefits. Unfortunately, to keep this pledge affordable, the higher payments were to be restricted to people reaching state pension age after 2015. That proved a fatal flaw in the plan. Excluding more than 10âmillion existing pensioners from the higher payouts would be political suicide. While millions who had paid tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) all their working lives would be excluded forever from the improved basic state pension, many others who never paid any tax or NICs but none the less have residency rights in the UK and retired after the change might benefit. No wonder the Prime Ministerâs office vetoed the plan as soon as its political consequences became clear. No one needs to tell Number 10 that pensioners tend to exercise their right to vote rather more rigorously than younger constituents. So the original proposals would have resulted in an extreme example of a reform where those who miss out make most noise while many winners would remain blithely unaware of what was going on. Neither is an attractive proposition for legislative change just months before the next general election is due. To be fair to Steve Webb, the pensions minister, it isnât his fault that the benefits system is so complex that any attempt at change is like trying to nail down a warped floor board. As soon as you think itâs fixed at one end â boing! â up it pops at the other end. What to do? Fortunately, the demographics offer a solution, which is supported by pensions experts including Dr. Altmann, Steve Bee of Paradigm Pensions and Tom McPhail of Hargreaves Lansdown. Restricting the increased basic state pension to everyone aged over 75 would mean only 4.4âmillion people would benefit, while restricting it to those aged over 80 would limit initial payouts to only 2.6âmillion. Either option would offer everyone, including existing younger pensioners, the hope of benefiting one day while cutting the cost to a half or quarter of the level of introducing better pensions for all immediately. Either option would also avoid the massive costs of compensating people wrongly compelled to start saving and have the additional benefit of helping to win the next general election. Or at least avoid losing it. Whatâs not to like? Tags: auto enrolment, Basic state pension, Chancellor, general election, George Osborne, government, Hargreaves Lansdown, means-tested benefits, National Employment Savings Trust, Nest, Paradigm Pensions, pensioners, pensions, retirement, Saga, savings, State pension, Steve Webb Recent Posts * Millions of investors miss the stock marketâs best start for two decades January 23rd, 2013 6:45 Comment on this * Why millions of the poorest people in Britain pay £200m a year unnecessary tax January 22nd, 2013 6:45 Comment on this * Taxman gets tough with 57pc increase in writs against late payers January 21st, 2013 12:08 Comment on this * House prices can build tax-free income and gains in new pensions and Isas January 18th, 2013 12:15 Comment on this * Expert tips on how to make a tax-free income from your home January 18th, 2013 6:45 Comment on this Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. comments powered by Disqus Finance bloggers * Ambrose Evans-Pritchard * Ian Cowie * Mats Persson * Jeremy Warner * Philip Aldrick * Richard Blackden * Andrew Lilico Our Finance Blogs * Economics * Business * Your Business * Energy * Retail and consumer * Your Money * Broadcasting and media * Politics and society Finance Tags Bank of England banks Chancellor china david cameron debt EU euro eurozone financial crisis financial services authority George Osborne Germany Gordon Brown government greece Hargreaves Lansdown HMRC HM Revenue & Customs homebuyers house prices income tax inflation Interest rates investors mortgage mortgages pension pensioners pensions property quantitative easing recession retirement savers savings shares Smith & Williamson spain stock market tax treasury Financial services * Telegraph Investment Service * Fund Supermarket * International money transfer * Wealth management ON THE FINANCE BLOG * PMQs: the earth moves for the Conservatives * David Cameron's Europe speech is good leadership and good politics * The Speech: a powerful case for EU reform – but can Cameron stick to the timetable? * Millions of investors miss the stock marketâs best start for two decades * Why millions of the poorest people in Britain pay £200m a year unnecessary tax Archives [Select Month__] Finance Topics * Energy * Retail * Financial Crisis * Recession * Interest rates * Budget * Gordon Brown * George Osborne Back to top * HOME * News * World News * Obituaries * Travel * Health * Jobs * Sport * Football * Cricket * Fantasy Football * Culture * Motoring * Dating * Finance * Personal Finance * Economics * Markets * Fashion * Property * Crossword * Comment * Blogs * My Telegraph * Letters * Technology * Gardening * Telegraph Journalists * Contact Us * Privacy and Cookies * Advertising * Fantasy Football * Tickets * Announcements * Reader Prints * * Follow Us * Apps * Epaper * Expat * Promotions * Subscriber * Syndication © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2013 Terms and Conditions Today's News Archive Style Book Weather Forecast #Finance » The German bloc will have to take its bitter medicine in Greece Comments Feed [p?c1=2&c2=6035736&cv=2.0&cj=1] Finance RSS Feed dcsimg Wednesday 23 January 2013 | Blog Feed | All feeds Website of the Telegraph Media Group with breaking news, sport, business, latest UK and world news. Content from the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph newspapers and video from Telegraph TV. ___________________ Submit * Home * News * World * Sport * Finance * Comment * Blogs * Culture * Travel * Life * Fashion * Tech * Dating * Offers * Jobs * Companies * Comment * Personal Finance * Economics * Markets * Festival of Business * Your Business * Business Club * Money Deals Blogs Home » Finance » Economics » Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Ambrose Evans-Pritchard has covered world politics and economics for 30 years, based in Europe, the US, and Latin America. He joined the Telegraph in 1991, serving as Washington correspondent and later Europe correspondent in Brussels. He is now International Business Editor in London. Subscribe to the City Briefing e-mail. [ambrose-new.jpg] The German bloc will have to take its bitter medicine in Greece By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard Economics Last updated: October 31st, 2012 Comment on this Comment on this article Every detail of the Greek economy is worse than officially forecast just weeks ago. The budget unveiled this morning estimates that public debt will reach 189pc of GDP next year (not 179pc). The budget deficit will be 5.2pc (not 4.2pc). The economy will shrink 4.5pc next year (not 3.8pc). Unemployment is already 25.1pc and 55.6pc for youth. Just for the record: The EU-IMF Troika originally said that the economy would contract by just 2.6pc in 2010, before growing by 1.1pc in 2011, and 2.1pc in 2012. In fact Greek GDP contracted by 4.5pc in 2010, 6.9pc in 2011, and will shrink 6.5pc this year, and now 4.5pc next year. The cumulative error is colossal. The IMF's former deputy chief John Lipsky told an HSBC forum in London earlier this month that it was impossible for the Fund to make any accurate forecast, given the crazy circumstances in Greece. I don't wish to be unduly harsh on the IMF â a superb organisation â but actually the Greek Labour Institute and the think-tank IOVE did predict this level of contraction. The IMF simply lost its political way in Greece. It knew â or should have known from dozens on rescue operations around the world â that Greece would crash into a self-feeding spiral without a rapid debt restructuring and a devaluation. Both channels were blocked because of the sanctity of the EMU Project. (Though default would come later, in a capricious fashion, singling out pension funds, insurers, and private creditors only). The policy never had any chance of working for Greece. The IMF under Strauss-Kahn went along with the EMU agenda, pretending all was well, sacrificing the Greeks to gain time for the European financial system to build up safety buffers. Thomas Wieser, the head of the European Working Group handling Greece, said today that press reports of further debt restructuring and official "haircuts" in the current Troika talks are pure fantasy. If that is so â and what he means is that Germany, Holland, Finland, and Austria will not tolerate a haircut on their holdings of Greek debt â then the creditor countries are trying to maintain a ridiculous illusion for their own internal political reasons. Greece cannot claw its way out of a 190pc of GDP debt load. The official haircut is coming sooner or later, and it will be an explosive political moment. Chancellor Angela Merkel will have to account for direct losses to the Bundestag. A line will have to be written into the German budget covering the X billions of euros. Other line items may have to be cut. Welfare support for Germans, perhaps. Having insisted for over two years that German taxpayers face no risk of loss on the Club Med rescue packages â and having indeed told them it generated a profit â she will have to explain why this has gone horribly wrong. No doubt she will try to delay this awful moment until after the German elections late next year. But the calendar of simmering revolt in Greece is not in her hands. One of the three parties in the pro-Memorandum coalition has already refused to go along with the budget plans. The Government majority is thinning fast. My guess is that Mrs Merkel will be forced to admit to the German nation that contingent liabilities are turning into real liabilities long before her elections. I leave it to German readers to tell us what the likely response be in the Bundestag and the German press. Tags: euro crisis, eurozone, Germany, greece Recent Posts * A new Gold Standard is being born January 17th, 2013 16:09 Comment on this * Money surge to carry Wall Street through the make-or-break line? January 16th, 2013 11:51 Comment on this * We cannot let America's tactical interests dictate Britain's sovereign destiny January 10th, 2013 12:05 Comment on this * Last chance to protest before the EU snuffs out thorium energy in Europe January 9th, 2013 14:34 Comment on this * Comrade Barroso, the existential threat to the euro is mass unemployment January 8th, 2013 14:33 Comment on this Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. comments powered by Disqus Finance bloggers * Ambrose Evans-Pritchard * Ian Cowie * Mats Persson * Jeremy Warner * Philip Aldrick * Richard Blackden * Andrew Lilico Our Finance Blogs * Economics * Business * Your Business * Energy * Retail and consumer * Your Money * Broadcasting and media * Politics and society Finance Tags Bank of England banks Chancellor china david cameron debt EU euro eurozone financial crisis financial services authority George Osborne Germany Gordon Brown government greece Hargreaves Lansdown HMRC HM Revenue & Customs homebuyers house prices income tax inflation Interest rates investors mortgage mortgages pension pensioners pensions property quantitative easing recession retirement savers savings shares Smith & Williamson spain stock market tax treasury Financial services * Telegraph Investment Service * Fund Supermarket * International money transfer * Wealth management ON THE FINANCE BLOG * PMQs: the earth moves for the Conservatives * David Cameron's Europe speech is good leadership and good politics * The Speech: a powerful case for EU reform – but can Cameron stick to the timetable? * Millions of investors miss the stock marketâs best start for two decades * Why millions of the poorest people in Britain pay £200m a year unnecessary tax Archives [Select Month__] Finance Topics * Energy * Retail * Financial Crisis * Recession * Interest rates * Budget * Gordon Brown * George Osborne Back to top * HOME * News * World News * Obituaries * Travel * Health * Jobs * Sport * Football * Cricket * Fantasy Football * Culture * Motoring * Dating * Finance * Personal Finance * Economics * Markets * Fashion * Property * Crossword * Comment * Blogs * My Telegraph * Letters * Technology * Gardening * Telegraph Journalists * Contact Us * Privacy and Cookies * Advertising * Fantasy Football * Tickets * Announcements * Reader Prints * * Follow Us * Apps * Epaper * Expat * Promotions * Subscriber * Syndication © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2013 Terms and Conditions Today's News Archive Style Book Weather Forecast #RSS Feed for Letters articles - Telegraph.co.uk < img alt="dcsimg" id="dcsimg" width="1" height="1" src="//webtrends.telegraph.co.uk/dcsshgbi400000gscd62rrg43_4o2o/njs.gif ?MLC=&Channel=&Genre=&Category=&Content_Type=&Level=&source=&dcsuri=/no javascript&WT.js=No&WT.tv=10.2.10&dcssip=www.telegraph.co.uk"/> [p?c1=2&c2=6035736&cv=2.0&cj=1] Accessibility links * Skip to article * Skip to navigation [telegraph_print_190.gif] Advertisement Telegraph.co.uk ___________________ Submit Wednesday 23 January 2013 * * News * World * Sport * Finance * Comment * Blogs * Culture * Travel * Life * Fashion * Tech * Dating * Offers * Jobs * Columnists * Personal View * Telegraph View * Letters * Cartoon Archive * My Telegraph 1. Home» 2. Comment» 3. Letters We must decide the areas in which ash trees are to be preserved Strategy to slow ash dieback disease. 7:00AM GMT 03 Nov 2012 Comments Comments SIR – The United Kingdom boasts several internationally significant populations of ash that require the highest levels of protection. These will be lost if we do not urgently put in place a strategy that targets these areas, at least to slow progress of the ash dieback disease. Top of the list must be the Lake District, which includes significant numbers of ash in ancient semi-natural woodlands and many hundreds of ancient pollards. Pollarding (lopping branches off trees at a height of 10 or 12ft above ground on a regular cycle) is integral to the traditional silvo-pastoral system practised for centuries throughout the region. In valleys such as Borrowdale, there are specimens hundreds of years old which provide a habitat for rare lichens, birds, bats and invertebrates. They are as much part of the landscape as the lakes, Herdwick sheep and vernacular architecture. Our experience with Dutch elm disease, foot and mouth, and red squirrel conservation, tells us that core populations need to be identified and targeted at the earliest possible stage in an outbreak. Edward R Wilson Forest Scientist Director Silviculture Research International Penrith, Cumbria Related Articles * Dance teaches children creativity and discipline 03 Nov 2012 SIR – Since the Second World War, native and ornamental trees in this country have been threatened by a series of diseases introduced from abroad. During the Fifties, the Rosaceae family, including sorbus, crataegus and pyracantha, was affected by fireblight introduced from North America. Dutch elm disease in the Sixties virtually exterminated the English elm. In the past decade, sudden oak death (again probably introduced from North America) has caused the felling of swathes of larch plantations and may threaten our native oak. The horse chestnut leaf miner arrived in about 2002 and now there is the real threat of the native ash following the elm into oblivion. The time has surely come for the Government to take a lead by introducing a ban on imported plants and nursery stock. Chris Rome Thruxton, Hampshire SIR – I fear the Forestry Commission no longer has any value other than as a land owner and ineffectual regulator. Its plant pathology unit was effectively reduced to zero not long after we lost all our elm trees. I have asked for advice about anthracnose in planes and sycamores, and black canker in horse chestnuts, to no avail. Christopher Curry Godmanchester, Huntingdonshire SIR – Each spring, to forecast our forthcoming summer weather, we recite: “Ash before the oak we will get a soak. Oak before the ash we’ll only get a splash.” What will we do when there are no more ash trees in the countryside? Valerie Mourilyan Wisborough Green, West Sussex Seeing through the EU SIR – Keith Moore (Letters, November 2) writes that, since the referendum in 1975, “the fundamentals [of the EU] have been altered to an extent that could not have been imagined at that time.” On a Concorde flight to Washington in the late Eighties, I sat next to Edward Heath, the former prime minister. In an energetic conversation about the referendum, he was adamant that: “Nobody could have been under any illusion that they weren’t voting for political and economic union.” I recall his words because they shocked me so much. When I argued that I and millions of others believed we were voting for membership of a “Common Market” and nothing more, he called us “deluded”. How accurate he was. He deluded us. The fundamental changes were even planned in outline by the EU’s architects. Their successors carried them through by means similar to the deceit of 1975. Michael Bacon Farnham, Surrey Truth unto power SIR – Peter Housden has done and continues to do an excellent job as the Permanent Secretary for the Scottish Government (“When it comes to Sir Peter Housden, we have a problem”, Comment, November 2). Sir Peter retains the trust and confidence of colleagues across Whitehall, earning their respect for the diligent and thoughtful way he has approached the constitutional issues we are now dealing with. He is one of our most senior and influential voices – sitting on the Civil Service Board and playing a strong role in managing our senior talent. Sir Peter, as with all civil servants, knows when to speak truth unto power and will do so as and when necessary. The suggestion in your piece that he fails to say “No” when “his political master misuses taxpayers’ money” is simply not borne out by any reality. The expenditure you refer to met the tests set out in Section 3 of the Public Finance and Accountability (Scotland) Act 2000. This point has been set out clearly by Sir Peter, and he has handled the whole situation with great integrity. Sir Bob Kerslake Head of the Civil Service Sir Jeremy Heywood Cabinet Secretary London SW1 Snake without books SIR – As a taxpayer, how pleased I am that the stuffed anaconda in the Foreign and Commonwealth Offices library has been restored (report, November 2). What a pity, then, that the snake now has no books to guard, since the FO library was disposed of in 2008. Most of the books were sent to other institutions, but some were scandalously sold off. Roger Croston Chester We’ve got it taped SIR – I still have cassette tapes in my K-registered car (Letters, November 2), but was unable to find anyone to repair a favourite one. Luckily, I recently found a CD of it, and have transferred it to tape for my continued enjoyment. Malcolm Watson Welford, Berkshire SIR – I recently exchanged my gas-guzzler for a venerable VW Golf, and the thing that clinched the deal was that the Golf had a dual CD/cassette player. My 20-year stock of cassettes can live again. Terence Key Bracknell, Berkshire Britain in Palestine SIR – Nabeel Shaath blames Britain for the Palestinians’ continued failure to establish their own state (Comment, November 1). The Palestinian Authority glorifies terrorism on state television. Half of Palestine’s desired future state, the Gaza Strip, is under the control of terrorists. Hamas continues to target Israeli civilians with rockets and mortars. Palestinians refuse to sit at the negotiating table with Israelis. Palestinian leaders pursue unilateral measures for recognition when they undertook not to do so under the Oslo accords. None of this is the fault of Britain. Palestinian rejectionism, as practised whenever they have been offered statehood (by the British, the international community, or the Israelis), is what is responsible for the plight of the Palestinians. Jonathan Sacerdoti Director, The Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy London WC2 SIR – As Israel’s Ambassador to Britain, Daniel Taub is only doing his job when he claims that the United Nations partition resolution of 1947 was “accepted by the Zionists” (Comment, November 2). However, if that were truly the case, then today Israel would be a smaller state and Jerusalem would be a corpus separatum overseen by the international community. Zionists have used the UN partition plan as a stepping stone to the realisation of “Greater Israel”, taking as much land with as few Palestinians on it as possible. It’s hard to believe that the ambassador could write so much without mentioning his country’s military occupation even once. Ibrahim Hewitt Senior Editor, Middle East Monitor London NW10 The right side SIR – As a poppy seller, I am often asked which side a woman should wear hers. I always say the right side. However, more women seem to be wearing them on the left. Can anyone tell me the correct side? Anthony Messenger Windsor, Berkshire Ahead of the curve SIR – On Downton Abbey, Matthew Crawley walked round the estate and mused: “It’s been a steep learning curve for me…” With other details of dress, speech and mores correct, this is a bit of a lapse. Andrea Bates Enstone, Oxfordshire Pathway to relieving pain as life ebbs away SIR – Prue Leith’s story about her brother’s painful death (Features, October 26) is sadly not unique. Healthcare workers have, since Harold Shipman, been terrified to prescribe morphine for end-of-life care because they are afraid of recriminations. This fear is all the more reason to support the Liverpool Care Pathway. The timing of when to introduce the Pathway is critical; it is not guesswork, as has been suggested. It is about sound clinical judgment that comes with experience. Healthcare workers should have the common sense and sensitivity to obtain consent from relatives in advance, and to ensure that relatives understand that the pathway is about relieving pain and suffering so that there can be dignity as life ebbs away. Relatives should be encouraged to understand the needs of the dying and not their own needs. You give examples of the Pathway being withdrawn and a patient living a further two weeks. However, no mention is made of the suffering that the person almost certainly experienced before finally dying. Who benefited from those two weeks? I am sure it was not the patient. Jennifer Hughes-Nurse Retired consultant gynaecologist Barrowden, Rutland SIR – The Liverpool Care Pathway is euthanasia via the back door. 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Home» 2. Finance» 3. Economics Bank of England needs to prevent group think, former deputy governor warns The Bank of England needs to encourage a new culture that allows staff to “challenge” senior figures to prevent potentially damaging “house views” developing, a former deputy governor has urged. Picture inside the cuppolla at the side of the Bank of England. The Bank needs to allow more challenge from junior staff Photo: Julian Simmonds Philiip Aldrick By Philip Aldrick, Economics Editor 12:32PM GMT 02 Nov 2012 IFRAME: http://platform.twitter.com/widgets/follow_button.html?show_screen_name =false&show_count=true&screen_name=philaldrick Comments Comments Sir John Gieve said the failure of economic policy before the crisis at the Bank and other institutions across the world was largely the result of “group think” that needs to be stamped out. His comments at Fathom Consulting’s Monetary Policy Forum echoed those made in three reviews into the Bank’s recent performance released today. They found that “there appears to be some tendency for [staff] to filter recommendations in such a way as to maximise the likelihood that senior staff will find the recommendation palatable” and that the Bank needed to cultivate “a more assertive and experienced staff” who would “seriously challenge” policymakers. Sir John, who was deputy governor for financial stability until 2009, said: “The biggest errors of economic policy were before the crisis in allowing the boom to develop. They were the result of a remarkable degree of group think – not just in the UK. “That was a problem in the Bank, as it was in the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. We need to redouble efforts to challenge orthodoxy in these institutions.” Related Articles * BoE admits its forecasts are worse than peers 02 Nov 2012 * BoE's 'hierarchical' culture attacked 02 Nov 2012 His words amounted to a call to arms for the Chancellor to ensure the right governance structures are put in place before the next Governor of the Bank takes over in June. Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, has called governance at the Bank “defective”. To stamp out group think, Sir John said the Bank should adopt the reviews’ proposal that it publish more detail on its economic forecasts. “How do you bring challenge into a hierarchical institution? One way of doing that is to publish more detail on the forecasts. Transparency on how they see the economy developing would be helpful in freeing up the discussion on what’s going right and what’s going wrong in its forecasts,” he said. “I think the reviews are right to suggest the Bank build in challenge to avoid house views developing.” One of the three reviews criticised the Bank’s error-ridden forecast record and suggested it publish the details of its outlook, such as the household savings rate and the output gap, to allow economists to challenge its assumptions. Eric Britton, a director at Fathom, said: “That should be out there and discussed – the way they are thinking about the world.” Sir John welcomed the reviews’ suggestion that matters could be brought up with the Court of the Bank, a group of independent directors who oversee the institution. He the Court should play “a stewardship role ... and assess whether blinkers are coming down ... and whether the architecture is working right”. However, Charles Goodhart, a former member of the Bank’s rate setting committee, told Fathom’s event that group think in the Bank has been no worse than other central banks and criticised the media’s mistaken tendency to focus on the person at the top. “If you think the Governor of the Bank was a Sun King, what do you make of [former US Federal Reserve chairman] Alan Greenspan. He would be a Sun King to the power of three,” Mr Goodhart said. “[Governor Sir] Mervyn King has been outvoted several times [on rates and money printing decisions]. You – in the media – focus so much on the man at the top. You don’t perceive how the person is influenced by those around him.” Economics * Finance » * Philip Aldrick » In Finance » George Osborne argued that Geoffrey Howe 'did not give up, but pressed on and overcame’, while Anthony Barber 'buckled and gave up’. Now the Chancellor is in Barber’s camp - Autumn Statement: The day the Chancellor reneged on his promise Autumn Statement: family tax bombshell over new black hole Top 10 coolest offices in the UK Related Partners * Save money on overseas transfers In Economics Debt crisis: live Global economy recession Britain to drop out of world's top ten economies Stock Trader Clutching His Head in Front of a Screen Showing a Stock Market Crash What's the most dangerous financial product? Aerial night view of Liverpool Street on August 6, 2007 in London UK financial sector at risk if country left EU Bail-outs 'a terrible deal' for taxpayers Advertisement telegraphuk Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus. blog comments powered by Disqus Advertisement Advertisement Finance Most Viewed * TODAY * PAST WEEK * PAST MONTH 1. Britain becomes Germany's biggest trade partner as Berlin-London pact deepens 2. Revolutionary Japan is suddenly the centre of world affairs 3. 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