The JDK 1.02 event model uses an event inheritance or bubbling approach. In this model, components are necessary to handle their own events. In a case if they not able to handle a particular event, so the event is inherited by the component''s container. The container then either handles the event or it is bubbled up to its container and so on, until the highest-level container has been tried.

In the event-delegation model, specific objects are chosen as event handlers for GUI components. These objects implement event-listener interfaces. The event-delegation model is efficient over event-inheritance model since it eliminates the processing required to support the bubbling of unhandled events.