7.9 Disabling the LayoutManager

To create a container with no layout manager, use null as the argument to setLayout(). If you do this, you must size and position every component individually. In most cases, disabling the LayoutManager is a bad idea because what might look great on one platform could look really bad on another, due to differences in fonts, native components, and other display characteristics. Figure 7.13 displays a container with a disabled LayoutManager; both buttons were positioned by specifying their size and location explicitly.

Here's the code that produces Figure 7.13:

import java.awt.Button;
import java.applet.Applet;
public class noLayout extends Applet {
    public void init () {
        setLayout (null);
        Button x = new Button ("Hello");
        add (x);
        x.reshape (50, 60, 50, 70);
        Button y = new Button ("World");
        add (y);
        y.reshape (100, 120, 50, 70);
    }
}