what are the old and new borderlayout styles?
The old style uses compass directions (NORTH, SOUTH...). The new style uses PAGE..., LINE... See the Swing tutorial on
Using Border Layout for more information. Also, download the example and use the structure of that program for your project.
You should not be extending JFrame to build the GUI and code should execute on the EDT.
also what do you mean giving the layout a panel?
By default a JPanel uses a FlowLayout. You will probably need to change the layout on one or two panels to achieve your desired layout. Experiment with the different layout managers.
Also, don't use TextArea. Use JTextArea.