My JFrame is all white!?!?!

Question

I've made a JFrame and added some buttons, but for some reason it's all white? What's wrong?
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class GUI extends JFrame {
     private JButton add = new JButton("add");     
     private JButton remove = new JButton("remove");
     private JButton reset = new JButton("reset");
     private JTextArea choiceArea = new JTextArea(4,4);
     public GUI() {
          super("Generator, v1");
          Container pane = getContentPane();
          JPanel buttons = new JPanel();
          buttons.setLayout(new GridLayout(3,1));
          buttons.add(add);
          buttons.add(remove);
          buttons.add(reset);
          pane.add(buttons);
          pane.add(choiceArea);
          setSize(500,500);
          setVisible(true);          
}

Answer 1

Add the buttons to north and textarea to center. If you don't specify where to put the panels, they are by default placed in center (I think...), and because you placed the textarea there after you had placed the buttons, the buttons will be replaced by the textarea.
this is how your code should look like:
    pane.add(buttons, BorderLayout.NORTH);
    pane.add(choiceArea, BorderLayout.CENTER);instead of
    pane.add(buttons);
    pane.add(choiceArea);