How to pass variables/objects from action listener to driver class?

Question

I have those to classes: the main and GUI. In GUI there is actionListener which gathers information from user interface panel. How can send these variables to driver class, to execute everything there? I need to add them to infinite loop to draw a moving object, drawing methods are in other class. GUI has extended frame

here are the classes:

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;

public class GUI extends Frame implements WindowListener,ActionListener {
 JLabel name1  = new JLabel("Name");
 JLabel color1  = new JLabel("Color");
 JLabel diam1  = new JLabel("Diameter");
 JLabel dist1  = new JLabel("Distance");
 JLabel speed1  = new JLabel("Speed");
 JTextField name2 = new JTextField();
 JTextField color2  = new JTextField();
 JTextField diam2  = new JTextField();
 JTextField dist2  = new JTextField();
 JTextField speed2  = new JTextField();

public void windowClosing(WindowEvent e) {
dispose();
System.exit(0);
}
double distance;
int Speed;
double diameter;

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
createVariables();
}
public void createVariables(){

try {
      distance = Double.parseDouble(dist2.getText());
      Speed = Integer.parseInt(speed2.getText());
      diameter = Double.parseDouble(diam2.getText());
    }
    catch(NumberFormatException i) {
    }   
    Planet cP = new        Planet(name2.getText(),distance,diameter,color2.getText(),Speed  );
    Main plnt = new Main(cP);
}

public void createFrame1(){
addWindowListener(this);
setLayout(new GridLayout(6,6,5,5));
JButton mygt = new JButton("Add planet");
mygt.addActionListener(this);
name2.setText("belekoks");color2.setText("RED");diam2.setText("30");dist2.setText(" 60");speed2.setText("2");
add(name1);add(name2);add(color1);add(color2);add(diam1);
add(diam2);add(dist1);add(dist2);add(speed1);add(speed2);
add(mygt);

}
public GUI(String title){
super(title);
createFrame1();
}
public void windowClosed(WindowEvent e) {}
public void windowActivated(WindowEvent arg0) {}
public void windowDeactivated(WindowEvent arg0) {}
public void windowDeiconified(WindowEvent arg0) {}
public void windowIconified(WindowEvent arg0) {}
public void windowOpened(WindowEvent arg0) {}
}

and Main:

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.util.Random;
public class Main{
/**
 * @param args
 */

public Main(Planet name){
    super(name);
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
SolarSystem system = new SolarSystem(300, 300);
GUI p = new GUI("New Planet");
p.pack();
p.setVisible(true);
Sun sun = new Sun("Sun", 0, 90, "YELLOW", 0);
Planet venus = new Planet("Venus",70,15,"ORANGE",2);
Planet earth = new Planet("Earth",100,20,"BLUE",1);
Moon moon = new Moon("Moon",earth.dist,5,"GRAY", 1, 30, 3);
Moon[] moons = new Moon[100];
moons[0] = moon;
Planet[] planets = new Planet[100];
planets[0] = earth;
planets[1] = venus;
Random rG = new Random();
Asteroid[] asteroids = new Asteroid[100];
for(int i=0; i<100;i++){
    Asteroid Asteroids = new Asteroid("Asteroid",     rG.nextDouble()+rG.nextInt(10)+45,rG.nextDouble()+rG.nextInt(10),"DARK_GRAY",rG.nextInt(360        ), 1);
    asteroids[i]=Asteroids;
}   

/*LinkedList list = new LinkedList();
for (int i=0;i<1;i++){
    list.add(moons[i]);
}
for (int i=0;i<2;i++){
    list.add(planets[i]);
}
for (int i=0;i<100;i++){
    list.add(asteroids[i]);
}
for (int i=0;i<100;i++){
    list.add(sun);
}

for(int y=0;y<2;y++){
    planets[2].move();
    planets[2].drawOn(system);
    system.finishedDrawing();
}

    for (int i=0; i>=0; i++){
    sun.drawOn(system);

    for(int y=0;y<3;y++){
        planets[y].move();
        planets[y].drawOn(system);
    }

    for (int y=0; y<100; y++){
        asteroids[y].move();
        asteroids[y].drawOn(system);
    }
    for (int y=0; y<1; y++){
        moons[y].move();
        moons[y].drawOn(system);
    }

    system.finishedDrawing();
    }
*/
}
}

i don't expect you to look through whole code, but the main thing is that i get variables in actionListener in GUI and i want to pass them to main in order to create an object which I could draw later.

planet class creates an object:

public class Planet extends CosmicEntity {
public Planet(String name, double distance, double diameter, String col, int speed)    {
    super(name,distance,diameter,col,speed, 0);
}
}

and CosmicEntity class which holds all the variables and methods to draw a planet from passed variables (super(name,distance,diameter,col,speed, 0)).

Answer 1

It's hard to know exactly what you need based on the information provided, but I think that you don't want to use an infinite loop, not for your GUI. Most simple animations can be easily driven by a Swing Timer.

As for your other problem, a the general rule is that objects can call methods of other objects if they have a valid reference to the other object. How to do this for your project will depend on your code. Often we pass references of one object to another though as a method or constructor parameter. For instance,

import java.awt.event.ActionEvent;
import java.awt.event.ActionListener;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;

public class FooMain {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      FooNonGui nonGuiReference = new FooNonGui();
      FooGui fooGui = new FooGui(nonGuiReference);

      fooGui.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
      fooGui.pack();
      fooGui.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
      fooGui.setVisible(true);

   }
}

class FooGui extends JFrame implements ActionListener {
   private FooNonGui nonGuiVariable;
   private int counter = 0;

   public FooGui(FooNonGui nonGuiParameter) {
      super("GUI");
      this.nonGuiVariable = nonGuiParameter;
      JButton button = new JButton("Button");
      button.addActionListener(this); // I hate doing this, but for brevity's sake...
      add(button);
   }

   public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
      nonGuiVariable.nonGuiMethod(counter);
      counter++;
   }
}

class FooNonGui {
   public void nonGuiMethod(int counter) {
      System.out.print("In non-GUI method.  ");
      System.out.println("counter is " + counter);
   }
}

I suggest that you give us more information so that we can be more knowledgeable about your problem and give you better help. This link may help: Smart Questions

Edit A: What are you adding your planets to? The SolarSystem object? Whichever class it is, likely will have or should have a public addPLanet(Planet planet) method. If SolarSystem, then you'll want to pass a reference to this object into your GUI class similar to what I do above.