how to use gridbag to make half of my JFrame a text area and the other half buttons?

Question

I want to make a JFrame to display a GUI like this: https://i.sstatic.net/2POFs.png (im not allowed to embed pictures)

the blank spcaces are the same X and Y dimentions, the buttons are the same X and Y dimentions, JTextArea is half of the frame.

public static JFrame frame = new JFrame ("Launcher " + version);
public static GridBagConstraints c = new GridBagConstraints();
public static JTextArea news = new JTextArea();
public static JButton launchGame = new JButton("Launch Game");
public static JButton settings = new JButton("Settings");
public static JButton exitGame = new JButton("Exit");

public static void main(String[] args) 
{
    news.setEditable(false);
    news.setBounds(0, 0, (screenSize.width - 500) / 2,  screenSize.height - 400);
    news.append("                        NEWS:\n");
    news.setBorder(BorderFactory.createBevelBorder(BevelBorder.RAISED, Color.gray, Color.black));

    frame.setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
    frame.setBounds(300, 200, screenSize.width - 500,  screenSize.height - 400);
    c.fill = GridBagConstraints.VERTICAL;
    c.weighty = 0.5;
    c.gridx = 0;
    c.gridy = 0;
    c.gridheight = 3;
    frame.add(news, c);
    frame.setVisible(true);
    c.fill = GridBagConstraints.EAST;
    c.weightx = 0.5;
    c.gridx = 1;
    c.gridheight = 1;
    frame.add(launchGame, c);
    c.gridy = 1;
    frame.add(settings, c);
            c.gridy = 2;
    frame.add(exitGame, c);
}

Answer 1

Is this what you want? I added/modified the following in your button constraints:

    c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
    c.insets = new Insets(0, 10, 0, 10); // 10 is the marginal

And here is the full code:

public static void main(String[] args)
{
    news.setEditable(false);
    news.append("                        NEWS:\n");
    news.setBorder(BorderFactory.createBevelBorder(BevelBorder.RAISED, Color.gray, Color.black));

    frame.setLayout(new GridBagLayout());
    c.fill = GridBagConstraints.VERTICAL;
    c.weighty = 0.5;
    c.gridx = 0;
    c.gridy = 0;
    c.gridheight = 3;
    frame.add(news, c);
    c.fill = GridBagConstraints.HORIZONTAL;
    c.insets = new Insets(10, 10, 10, 10); // 10 is the marginal
    c.weightx = 0.5;
    c.gridx = 1;
    c.gridheight = 1;
    frame.add(launchGame, c);
    c.gridy = 1;
    frame.add(settings, c);
    c.gridy = 2;
    frame.add(exitGame, c);

    frame.pack();
    frame.setVisible(true);
}

Here is a similar layout using BoxLayout instead (easier to work with I think):

private static JComponent buildButtons() {
    for (JButton button : Arrays.asList(launchGame, settings, exitGame)) {
        button.setMaximumSize(new Dimension(Short.MAX_VALUE, Short.MAX_VALUE));
    }

    Box b = Box.createVerticalBox();
    b.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(10));
    b.add(launchGame);
    b.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(10));
    b.add(settings);
    b.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(10));
    b.add(exitGame);
    b.add(Box.createVerticalStrut(10));

    return b;
}

static JComponent buildUI() {
    Box b = Box.createHorizontalBox();
    b.add(news);
    b.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(10));
    b.add(buildButtons());
    b.add(Box.createHorizontalStrut(10));

    return b;
}

public static void main(String[] args)
{
    news.setEditable(false);
    news.append("                        NEWS:\n");
    news.setBorder(BorderFactory.createBevelBorder(BevelBorder.RAISED, Color.gray, Color.black));

    frame.add(buildUI());
    frame.pack();
    frame.setVisible(true);
}