button = JButton("selected?", actionPerformed=click) addButton = JButton("add 7", actionPerformed=add) remButton = JButton("remove element", actionPerformed=rem) chButton = JButton("Change to list B", actionPerformed=change) listModel = DefaultListModel() [listModel.addElement(e) for e in liste] li = JList(listModel) spane = JScrollPane(li) # making the list scrollable. li is now inside container JScrollPane #b = JButton("press", actionPerformed=rem) p.add(spane) p.add(button) p.add(addButton) p.add(remButton) p.add(chButton) f.add(p) f.pack() f.setLocationRelativeTo(None) f.setVisible(True) print f.getParent() print f.getLocationOnScreen() print f.getContentPane().getSize()