It's issues like this that let me know that Java's Swing GUI toolkit just isn't programmer friendly, and makes me all the more sure that they've taken much too "Ivory Tower" an approach to creating this particular library in specific and Java in general.

In brief, Swing has a toolbar that is created so that it can easily share actions with quite a bit of code reuse with an entry in your menu bar. This toolbar, with its icons for each acton, can be easily moved by your applications user from the top of the window to reside on either side of your app or at the bottom -- or even float outside of the window just as you'd expect a toolbar from Microsoft Word to behave, as an example.

But can you poll your application to find where the user's moved the toolbar? Technically yes, but practically no. The link posted above, with it's relatively advanced knowledge of the Swing Layout Managers, it apparently how you'd have to do something that anyone writing an app for toolbars would want to know how to do.

Anyhow, quick Swing vent. I truly hope Sun is going to come out with something better, though it's already too late for me. ;^)