10. The system as recited in claim 1 , wherein the operating system comprises a Windows, Unix or OS/2 computer operating system.
1. A system of software components stored on a computer-readable medium adapted to display an object created by an application program running under an operating system by reproducing the behavior of legacy AWT-based controls by switching between swing controls, wherein the system of software components comprises: a first swing proxy component; a second swing proxy component; a peer component for selecting either the first proxy component or the second proxy component, depending on a mode of use of the object, where selection is based upon which swing component is capable of supporting the mode of use, wherein the selection can be made during runtime, and wherein after the proxy component is selected, the selected proxy component dynamically creates a new graphics resource component for displaying the object, such that the appearance of the displayed object is substantially independent of the operating system.