Perry,
I appreciate your comments. You may be right in your comment that without an experienced Java programmer a group of VFP programmers working on a Java project are screwed, but I sincerely hope not. We do have one guy from a mainframe/linux background...

In your Java project are you using a GUI tool? We are using a beta version of NetBeans 6.0 and it appears to give a visual way to work with a gridbaglayout ( where do they come up with these names??).

When we were working in .Net we knew the environment was different but we felt like we were in the same solar system. Java is so different that, at this point, I am disoriented. I felt much the same way when I moved from FoxPro DOS to VFP- the world had changed and it took a while for me to retrain my thoughts. Having gone thru this once I know that it is doable, it is just going to take some time.