I need some help please.

My job requires me to do Java. My program has to be cross platform, so Java is the best? choice. The problem is when I start to learn a bit of Java, I get really confused. I encountered things like Applet (which I figure out what is it) Bean, Swing, JNI and other interesting 'aliases' of Java.

I am comfortable with C++ and the OO stuff and I hope that will give me a gentle start, it seems that is not the case. To be specific, my program does not need a beautiful GUI, it is more like a cookie. This 'cookie' can do things like storing (securely) a strong and hard to remember user password and login systems on behalf of a user etc. when a user gives a simple PIN. Please someone tell me should I use Bean, Swing or other lovely named thing.

Thank you in advance.


Will