Is it possible to set Borderlayout center part minimum with or height?

Question

I want to preserve some space for the center part, but when the full panel size is small, the other parts will occupy most of the space and the center will be squeezed to very small space. I am wondering whether there is any method to preserve some space for center and maybe set a maximum size for south or other parts.

Answer 1

Using a JFrame as the root component in a 1.6+ JRE, there is this way..
import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.io.File;
import java.net.URL;
class FrameMinimumSizeTextArea {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Runnable r = new Runnable() {
      public void run() {
        try {
          JFrame f = new JFrame("Minimum Size Set");
          f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          JPanel p = new JPanel(new BorderLayout(3,3));
          File file = new File("FrameMinimumSizeTextArea.java");
          JEditorPane jep = new JEditorPane(file.toURI().toURL());
          jep.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400,400));
          JScrollPane sp = new JScrollPane(jep);
          p.add(sp);
          f.setContentPane(p);
          f.pack();
          // this is the 1.6+ magic
          f.setMinimumSize( f.getSize() );
          f.setLocationByPlatform(true);
          f.setVisible(true);
        } catch(Exception e) {
          e.printStackTrace();
    EventQueue.invokeLater(r);
}