Why is it frowned upon to use a null layout in Swing?

Recently, I started creating a program for the company I work for. Just as background info, I'm still a student and a beginner programmer, so my solution is probably not recommended and I didn't know how to do it otherwise, but it works and I'm not going to be judged for it because it's a student job totally unrelated to programming.

The thing about the program is, it's going to be run on multiple different computer with different screen sizes and resolutions (800x600 and up). To make sure it takes as much of the screen as possible without losing any part of the program, I set the layout to null and hard-coded everything using relative values.

The program is kiosk-style and I first get the screen size values and go from there (for example, off the top of my head, the left-side menu takes an eighth of the screen, the top bar 2%, etc.). I also use font metrics to make sure the components are sized correctly and that everything gets displayed nicely.

My question is: why is it so frowned upon to make the layout null instead of using the layout managers? (I was told on some forums that this is a horrible way of doing things) I know how the layout manager works and know how to use the different layouts, but for the requirements of this program (multiple different resolutions, custom button shapes and placements, text changing on the components when you change language, etc.), I couldn't see myself using the layout managers to do it all.

How do you more experienced programmers use the layout managers in a situation like this? And what do you do when you want a button to be somewhere specific and other components somewhere else specific that don't really match any of the predefined layouts?

Solution 1:

If you layer the layout managers correctly the screen will re-flow to different sizes for you, the idea is to use a single set of layout managers on ALL screen sizes.

If you use null you will have to do each screen size yourself. Not only that but if the app can be windowed you have to support every possible size they might scroll to.

That's kind of difficult to do, but the layout mangers are designed to do just that.

There are some common tricks. BorderLayout is a great layout to start with. Sometimes you might use it at multiple levels--often with just 2 or 3 components in it. That's because it's really good at giving all but one area the minimum required area and giving everything else to the CENTER.

FlowLayout can be useful but it's tricky if your components are different sizes.

I wouldn't try GridBagLayout unless you are planning to write code to feed your layout manager (an excellent solution at that!).

I also wouldn't use GUI builders, they don't know the overall way you want to reflow your layout.

Solution 2:

In a nutshell: because all the work that you explain above is done (or at least: should be done) by the layout manager.

More often than not, when a null layout is used, it also implies that all positions and sizes are hardcoded to a single value, so no flexibility at all is given. This means that changes in window size, language, font size, display density or any other related parameter have no effect on the layout and you get the usual ugly effects: empty parts of the window; tiny, unresizable lists; buttons with their labels cut off; ...

It sounds like the work you do should really be done by the Layout Manager. Either find one that does that (my personal suggestion would be MiGLayout, which does a lot and is easy to use) or write your own.