swing - Is The Java Tutorials Translucent Window example giving trouble to those playing with jdk7?

Question

Here's the example.

If you build and run TranslucentWindow in let's say, NetBeans IDE 7.0, which supports jdk7, you'll get the following exception:

Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.awt.IllegalComponentStateException: The frame is decorated
    at java.awt.Frame.setOpacity(Frame.java:960)
    at main.TranslucentWindow.<init>(TranslucentWindow.java:23)
    at main.TranslucentWindow$1.run(TranslucentWindow.java:47)
    at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:251)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:705)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.access$000(EventQueue.java:101)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:666)
    at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:664)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
    at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:675)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:211)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:128)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:117)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:113)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:105)
    at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:90)
BUILD SUCCESSFUL (total time: 1 second)

According to this stack trace, the offending line is tw.setOpacity(0.55f). But, as the error indicates, if you invoke setUndecorated(true) on the frame, then it won't throw the exception and will create a translucent window, albeit without any decoration (which is a pain). Is this normal? Shouldn't this code run right "out-of-the-box"? Am I overlooking something?

EDIT

Why does their translucent window appear decorated, or is this custom rendering?

What it is...

What it should be...

Answer 1

Right from the JavaDocs for java.awt.frame.setOpacity() in JDK7:

The following conditions must be met in order to set the opacity value less than 1.0f:

• The TRANSLUCENT translucency must be supported by the underlying system
• The window must be undecorated (see setUndecorated(boolean) and Dialog.setUndecorated(boolean))
• The window must not be in full-screen mode (see GraphicsDevice.setFullScreenWindow(Window))

If the requested opacity value is less than 1.0f, and any of the above conditions are not met, the window opacity will not change, and the IllegalComponentStateException will be thrown.

The behavior that you are seeing is documented and is expected behavior.