This is likely enough to solve the immediate problem.  Minimum and Preferred
sizes are vital to letting your layoutmanager know how you expect to be
displayed.

However, I'll pass along a piece of advice I was given long ago, which I now
ignore often but still has a ton of value:

 Use only GridBagLayout.  

This is worthwhile for two reasons:  First, you will learn more about
AWT/Swing layout from doing a few mildly complex GridBag layouts than you will
from doing dozens of Border/Box/Grid layouts.

Second, you will realize that the spec for a good resizable layout is harder
than you think, and in putting together GridBagConstraints for each component
you will get a much better understanding of how you want your app to work.

It's possible that SpringLayout has replaced GridBagLayout for this level of
generality, and you should learn that instead (or in addition).
--
Mark Rafn    dagon@dagon.net    <http://www.dagon.net/>

.
I might not have grasped your tip entirely, but I think the BoxLayout
as you recommend it to me, does not solve my problem. Here is a pice of
complete demo code to show you that the buttons are aligned to the left
anyone one after the other. I meant a component in the FAR left,
another in the middle and another one in the FAR right, not just one
componente next to the other in this order.
.
I think gridbag layouts would be ideal but I might have to do it this
way in a second iteration
.
// __ from:
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/layout/box.html

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class BxLO00Test{
public static void addComponentsToPane(Container pane) {
 pane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(pane, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));
 JButton JBtn00, JBtn02, JBtn04;
// __
 JBtn00 = new JButton("JBtn00");
 JBtn00.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT);
// __
 JBtn02 = new JButton("JBtn02");
 JBtn02.setAlignmentX(Component.CENTER_ALIGNMENT);
// __
 JBtn04 = new JButton("JBtn04");
 JBtn04.setAlignmentX(Component.RIGHT_ALIGNMENT);
// __
 pane.add(JBtn00);
 pane.add(JBtn02);
 pane.add(JBtn04);
// __
}
// __
private static void createAndShowGUI() {
// __  Create and set up the window.
 JFrame JFrm = new JFrame("BxLO00Test");
 JFrm.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
 JFrm.setSize(800, 25);
// __  Set up the content pane.
 addComponentsToPane(JFrm.getContentPane());
// __  Display the window.
//  JFrm.pack();
 JFrm.setVisible(true);
}
// __
public static void main(String[] args) {
 javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
  public void run() { createAndShowGUI();  }
 });
}
}