When I started in 1999 with Java I was fascinated about the feature Layout Manager. You only say what you want (a Label, a Textfield, a Label , a combobox, ...) and the Layout Manager places it justified in a panel. No clicking and moving with the mouse. But it is a long way to create complicated forms using the GridBag Layout Manager. To speed up I wrote an XML-inteface. All SWING components and their relationships are defined in XML. A class reads XML and builds SWING on the fly.
Now we made a product out of it called JEasy
http://www.jeasy.de To learn the Layout Manager its the best way. In a Repository you create all SWING objects. A preview function let you see at once what you would have to code in hours. Try it its free for evaluation.
[This message has been edited by Harry Pfohl (edited August 03, 2001).]