Java: What Layout Manager would be best for a game menu?

Question

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Game Name

Play
Exit

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the above is what my previous game menu looked like. I used the Box Layout to create it but it was very tedious. Is there there a better layout manager that I could use?

here is the code for those that asked of the main pane.

private JButton JB;
private JButton EB;
private JOptionPane JO;

public StartUpWindow(){
    super("Pong");

    JPanel outside = new JPanel();
    JPanel inside = new JPanel();
    setLayout(new BorderLayout());



    outside.setLayout(new BoxLayout(outside, BoxLayout.LINE_AXIS));
    inside.setLayout(new BoxLayout(inside, BoxLayout.PAGE_AXIS));

    outside.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(280));
    outside.add(inside);
    outside.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(20));

    inside.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(20));
    JLabel title = new JLabel("      "+"Pong");
    title.setFont( new Font("Serif", Font.BOLD, 40));
    inside.add(title);
    inside.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(20));

    JButton btt1 = new JButton("Start");
    Dimension d = new Dimension(200,40);

    btt1.setSize(d);
    btt1.setMinimumSize(d);
    btt1.setMaximumSize(d);
    btt1.setPreferredSize(d);

    JButton btt2 = new JButton("Credits");
    btt2.setSize(d);
    btt2.setMinimumSize(d);
    btt2.setMaximumSize(d);
    btt2.setPreferredSize(d);
    JButton btt3 = new JButton("Exit");
    btt3.setSize(d);
    btt3.setMinimumSize(d);
    btt3.setMaximumSize(d);
    btt3.setPreferredSize(d);

    inside.add(btt1);
    btt1.addActionListener(this);
    btt1.setActionCommand("start");

    inside.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(5));

    inside.add(btt2);
    btt2.addActionListener(this);
    btt2.setActionCommand("credits");

    inside.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(5));

    inside.add(btt3);
    btt3.addActionListener(this);
    btt3.setActionCommand("exit");

    inside.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(20));

    add(outside);

    this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    this.setSize(800,600);
    this.setVisible(true);
    this.setResizable(false);
    this.setLocation(450,200);

    inside.setBackground(Color.GRAY);
    outside.setBackground(Color.GRAY);


}

Answer 1

I agree that BoxLayout is tedious but I admire its relative simplicity.

Another quick and easy option is to use the "javax.swing.Box" class instead of using a layout manager directly.

Box box = Box.createVerticalBox();
box.add(new JLabel("Game"));
box.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(20));
box.add(new JLabel("Button 1"));
box.add(new JLabel("Button 2"));

JFrame frame = new JFrame();
frame.add(box);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true);

Box offers a number of useful methods. You can use it to create vertical and horizontal boxes, create "struts" to reserve horizontal and vertical space, and create "glue" to fill in available space when the layout grows.

Of course you could also use GridBagLayout, but I tend to reserve it for more complex layouts. Box and his cousin BoxLayout are often good enough for simple layouts and are easy for new programmers who are maintaining the application to understand and debug.

Answer 2

Why not simply use no layout and instead draw everything using a Graphics object?

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You could easily achieve this by creating a BufferStrategy bound to the Window object (invoke createBufferStrategy on the latter) then call a few simple methods to easily redraw the screen.

This also means it's simpler to then code the game's display when you're playing it.

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BufferStrategy also allows the use of page flipping and other forms of buffering when the application is in fullscreen exclusive mode, allowing it to refresh the screen very rapidly in many applications.