Layout Management

• Unlike many programming languages, we generally don't specify absolute positions when laying out components in Java.
• Why not?  Keep in mind, people set their screens to different resolutions.  And different operating systems use different resolutions as well.  Java is designed to run in different environments. If you specify hard positions for each of your components, it will not look good when resized or when used on a computer with a different resolution than yours!  Trust me here...
• So, the solution is the concept of layout managers.
• Layout managers dynamically position components in your Frame.  If the size of your frame changes, or the resolution is different, layout managers automatically reposition your components.
• But this flexibility comes at a price.  You have to figure out what layout managers to use.
• The trick is to nest the layout managers.
• A frame can have one layout manager.  Then, within that layout, you can place panels.
• Each panel can have a layout manager.  Within those panels, you can have even more panels with even more layout managers.
• So, let's take a look at an example.


 An example
 
 

Created by:  Brandan Jones January 4, 2002