:: Readme :: Forms 1.0.5 ::

Build better screens faster

The Forms framework helps you lay out and implement elegant Swing panels quickly and consistently. It makes simple things easy and the hard stuff possible, the good design easy and the bad difficult.

Forms requires Java 1.4 or later. A version for Java 1.3 is here.

Getting Started

Forms ships with a tutorial and tutorial sources. The compiled tutorial is available as Forms Demo. And you can find more examples at www.JGoodies.com/freeware. As a next step you can study the JGoodies articles and presentations.

Support

Please check the FAQ and do not send personal mail!

You may subscribe to the users mailing list and browse or search the list's archive. And you can direct new questions to users@forms.dev.java.net. Please register with this list before you post; otherwise I need to manually accept your messages.

Also, you can use the issue tracker to find issues regarding the Forms. As a project observer you can log defects, request features and suggest enhancements.

Distribution Contents

`docs/api`		JavaDocs directory
`docs/tutorial`		programmer's tutorial
`docs/reference`		programmer's reference
`docs/whitepaper.pdf`		a background article about the Forms

`src/tutorial`		tutorial sources
`src/test`		sources for unit tests

`LICENSE.txt`		the BSD license agreement
`README.html`		this readme file
`RELEASE-NOTES.txt`		Release Notes
`build.xml`		ANT build file
`default.properties`		ANT default build properties

`forms-1.0.5-src.zip`		zipped library sources
`forms-1.0.5.jar`		the library jar

Open Issue

There's a weakness in the FormLayout that may require an API extension. Components that span multiple columns or rows do not affect the column width or row height resp., but can in some cases expand the container.
I'm looking for a means to let the layout grid honor these components that is both powerful and easy to understand. See the FAQ for details and a workaround.

Acknowledgements

The Forms project has been financed by Johannes Riege, the Java desktop team at Sun Microsystems and customers of the JGoodies Swing Suite. It is only with their money that I can provide, maintain, and improve this library at no charge.

FormLayout has been inspired by Mullet&Sano's grid system, Daniel Barbalace's TableLayout, Daniel Michalik's HIGLayout, and Doug Stein's GridBagLayout. The concept of dialog units stems from Microsoft user interface implementations.

You can Help

If you save time and money using the JGoodies Forms, you may help me finance my Java desktop activities by licensing the commercial JGoodies Swing Suite.