Drawing staircases

[GreenRock]

How would I draw a simple, side-view of a staircase on an applet?
I have to use "for" statements to loop a drawing so it appears as a staircase.
It has to start on the bottom left corner of the applet, and end in the upper right.

No idea how to start.

Thank you for your time.

[Fubarable]

What do you know so far? Can you draw lines? a rectangle? have you created applets before and drawn in them? do you use applets or japplets? Please give us something we can work with here.

[GreenRock]

lines.
Yes, I am familiar with applets, but I'm lost with this problem.
I'm not familiar with japplets, but I could say that the applets I'm working with are graphic applets.
Sorry for the oversight.

[hardwired]

// <applet code="StairApplet" width="400" height="400"></applet>
// at the prompt>appletviewer StairApplet.java
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class StairApplet extends JApplet {
    public void paint(Graphics g) {
        int w = getWidth();
        int h = getHeight();
        g.setColor(Color.blue);
        g.drawRect(0,0,w-1,h-1);
        g.setColor(Color.red);
        int steps = 8;
        for(int i = 0; i < steps; i++) {
            int x1 = i*(w/steps);
            int x2 = (i+1)*(w/steps);
            int y1 = h-1 - i*(h/steps);
            int y2 = y1;
            g.drawLine(x1, y1, x2, y2);
        }
    }
}

[Fubarable]

// <applet code="StairApplet" width="400" height="400"></applet>
// at the prompt>appletviewer StairApplet.java
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class StairApplet extends JApplet {
    public void paint(Graphics g) {
        int w = getWidth();
        int h = getHeight();
        g.setColor(Color.blue);
        g.drawRect(0,0,w-1,h-1);
        g.setColor(Color.red);
        int steps = 8;
        for(int i = 0; i < steps; i++) {
            int x1 = i*(w/steps);
            int x2 = (i+1)*(w/steps);
            int y1 = h-1 - i*(h/steps);
            int y2 = y1;
            g.drawLine(x1, y1, x2, y2);
        }
    }
}

I've always been taught to never draw directly on a JApplet, as you lose all benefits of Swing and can have side effects, but to instead draw in a JPanel's paintComponent method and then add the panel to the applet's contentPane.

[hardwired]

That is the rigorous way to do it. When people learn with applets sometimes they learn to draw in the Container paint method. For simple beginnings this is okay. When you add components things get messy and it is much easier to draw on a separate component. Container drawing can be complicated but sometimes it's just what's needed. Depends on what we're doing. Flexibility can be a good thing.

[[RaIdEn]]

for heavier programs it would really help when you take Panels and Frames in your consideration. It would be kinda foolish if you try to make a loop filled program for even a small movable program.