Java Builders - laying out Swing controls in text...crazy or just crazy productive?

I had a small epiphany last week...there is something to be said about seeing a screen in a GUI builder and at least getting some idea as to what it looks like.

So, assuming we still want this layout:


what if instead explicitly defining the constraints like this:

JFrame:
 name: myFrame
 title: Frame
 content:
   - JPanel:
     name: groupLayoutPanel
     content:
      - JLabel: {name: label, text: "Find What:"}
      - JTextField: {name: textField}
      - JCheckBox: {name: caseCheckBox, text: Match Case}
      - JCheckBox: {name: wholeCheckBox, text: Whole Words}
      - JCheckBox: {name: wrapCheckBox, text: Wrap Around}
      - JCheckBox: {name: searchBackwardsCheckBox, text: Search Backwards}
      - JButton: {name: findButton, text: Find}
      - JButton: {name: cancelButton, text: Cancel}
   MigLayout:
      constraints:
           - label: cell 0 0
           - textField: cell 1 0 4 1, grow
           - caseCheckBox: cell 1 1
           - wholeCheckBox: cell 2 1
           - wrapCheckBox: cell 1 2
           - searchBackwardsCheckBox: cell 2 2
           - findButton: cell 5 0, grow
           - cancelButton: cell 5 1, grow

we actually laid it out in text, with some simple hints:

JFrame:
name: myFrame
title: Frame
content:
  - JPanel:
    name: groupLayoutPanel
    content:
      - JLabel: {name: label, text: "Find What:"}
      - JTextField: {name: textField}
      - JCheckBox: {name: caseCheckBox, text: Match Case}
      - JCheckBox: {name: wholeCheckBox, text: Whole Words}
      - JCheckBox: {name: wrapCheckBox, text: Wrap Around}
      - JCheckBox: {name: searchBackwardsCheckBox, text: Search Backwards}
      - JButton: {name: findButton, text: Find}
      - JButton: {name: cancelButton, text: Cancel}
   layout: |
      >label   textField+2                             findButton
               caseCheckBox  wholeCheckBox             cancelButton
               wrapCheckBox  searchBackwardsCheckBox
         

Basically, the rows are defined by the fact the controls are in the same row.
The columns are automatically inferred from how the controls are aligned in the actual
"layout" node.

Some simple symbols in front of the name to indicate horizontal and vertical alignment:
> : halign right
| : halign center
/ : valign bottom
- : valign middle

and after the control name the span information

+2      : span horizontally 2 cells
+1+2    : span 1 cell horizontally, 2 cells vertically

Behind the scenes everything would be converted to regular MigLayout of course.
And I would still allow a separate constraints section to allow adding more specific
MigLayout constraints, but the ones above probably cover 80%/90% of the most common cases.

A trip down insanity lane? Or the best idea since sliced bread?

I'm still not sure myself...but I can see one making some layouts very quickly with this and
just by looking at the file getting a rough idea of what it actually looks like once
running.