1. A computer-implemented data processing system including a processor and memory which executes an application program running in the memory that uses a plurality of top-level graphical-containers, said computer-implemented data processing system performing a method comprising the steps of: receiving a request from said application program for a top-level graphical-container, wherein said application program is implemented in the Java programming language using the Swing GUI development tool-kit; determining whether a native top-level graphical-container has already been generated; if it is determined that a native top-level graphical-container has not already been generated, sending the request directly to the graphical component of an operating system or writing the top-level graphical-container directly to a hardware component; if it is determined that a native top-level graphical-container has already been generated, generating an instance of an internal virtual frame object that simulates a native top-level graphical-container; and returning an acknowledgment indicating that a top-level graphical-container exists to said requesting application program.
2. A computer-implemented data processing system as recited in claim 1 , wherein said application program is implemented in a platform-independent programming language.