public interface CellRenderer<T>

This class is geared to replace the ListCellRenderer in the long run to provide a more generic rendering API. A “rubber stamp” tool that allows us to extract a component (often the same component instance for all invocations) that is initialized to the value of the current item extracted from the model, this component is drawn on the list and discarded. No state of the component is kept and the component is essentially discarded.

An instance of a renderer can be developed as such:

public class MyYesNoRenderer extends Label implements ListCellRenderer {
    public Component getListCellRendererComponent(List list, Object value, int index, boolean isSelected) {
        if (((Boolean) value).booleanValue()) {
            setText("Yes");
        } else {
            setText("No");
        }
        return this;
    }

    public Component getListFocusComponent(List list) {
        Label label = new Label("");
        label.getStyle().setBgTransparency(100);
        return label;
    }
}

It is recommended that the component whose values are manipulated would not support features such as repaint(). This is accomplished by overriding repaint in the subclass with an empty implementation. This is advised for performance reasons, otherwise every change made to the component might trigger a repaint that wouldn’t do anything but still cost in terms of processing.