transparentlayout
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Introduction

Current JDK layout managers are too hard to understand. Deciding how to set them up is a bit of a trick.

TransparentLayout is intended to lead developers to a more productive, less error-prone GUI building by freeing them from the layout management complexities.

Usage

TransparentLayout doesn't require any brainstorm for designing layout code. Just set the original component bounds (x, y, width, height) and enjoy your GUI.

See a sample code (TransparentLayoutDemo.java).

import net.java.dev.transparentlayout.*;
...
public class TransparentLayoutDemo
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        JFrame f = new JFrame("TransparentLayout demo");
        f.setLayout(new TransparentLayout());
        ...
        f.add(component, new Rectangle(x, y, width, height));
        ...
        f.setVisible(true);
    }
}

The hack

TransparentLayout infers the appropriate resizing behavior from the original component bounds, allowing development in a very friendly manner.

The solution can be used either in command-line tools or in graphical ones.

Release

Grids no more! Download TransparentLayout now!

Installation

Copy the downloaded file (*.jar) to the JRE extension directory (/jre/lib/ext/) and import the TransparentLayout package in your code. That's all!

Highlights

Highly productive	World class	Well tested (64 Test Cases Passed!)

Vote for RFC

If you believe that TransparentLayout can leverage the Java productivity, please vote for it in the Sun Bug Parade.

What about others?

Other layout management initiatives as TableLayout, ExplicitLayout, FormLayout (aka JGoodies) and GroupLayout (aka Matisse) introduce yet another constraint to learn about. TransparentLayout uses well known Rectangle objects instead.

About the authors

	Everton Gomes is a book writer and works at the TIVIT Brazilian Software House.
	Cesar Nascimento is an anime enthusiast and a Java Senior Programmer currently working at Accenture.