To continue the design challenge series to create easy-to-use super-compact XML formats for Java layout manager lets shake up FormLayout shipping with the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) since Eclipse 2.0.

To get started with FormLayout check out the online article titled "Understanding Layouts in SWT".

Now here's my first shot for the button example:

<springbox>

  <sd left="+5" right="25%">
    <button id="b1" label="Button1" />
  </sd>

  <sd left="prev+5" right="-5">
    <button id="b2" label="Button2" />
  </sd>

  <sd top="b1+5" left="center-30" right="50%+30">
    <button id="b3" label="Button3" />
  </sd>

  <sd top="prev+5" bottom="-5" left="25%">
    <button id="b4" label="Button4" />
  </sd>

  <sd bottom="-5" left="prev+5">
    <button id="b5" label="Button5" />
  </sd>           
  
</springbox>

For comparision check out the plain old Java spaghetti code in the "Understanding Layouts in SWT" article. Can you do better? Help shape the future of rich UIs using XML and post your own XML format contender today.