The Java^SM Developer Connection^SM (JDC) presents a Short Course on Effective Layout Management written by Java^TM Software licensee, the MageLang Institute. A leading provider of Java technology training, MageLang has contributed regularly to the JDC since 1996.

The MageLang Institute, since its founding in 1995, has been dedicated to promoting the growth of the Java technology community by providing excellent education and acting as an independent resource. To find out more about MageLang's Java technology training, visit the MageLang web site.

The goal of this course is to help you effectively use layout managers with AWT and Java Foundation Classes (JFC) Project Swing components. You will learn how to build complex screens with the help of one or multiple layout managers.

Because of the promise of Write Once, Run Anywhere^TM (WORA) with the Java platform, development of Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) with the Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) is not straightforward. Unlike when creating user interfaces for one language on one platform, you cannot just position components with absolute sizes and coordinates. You must take into account the fact that components are different sizes on different operating systems. You also must take into account what happens to those components when you internationalize an application and the text labels are localized, as some labels may be different lengths. Additionally, you need to properly handle what happens if the user resizes the user interface screen. To deal with all these situations, the Java platform has the concept of a layout manager for positioning components within windows.

Prerequisites

These course notes and exercises require a JDK^TM 1.1.5 or higher environment.

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