Here's my layout code;

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">

    <TextView android:text="@string/welcome"
        android:id="@+id/TextView"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
    </TextView>

    <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/LinearLayout"
        android:orientation="horizontal"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="bottom">

            <EditText android:id="@+id/EditText"
                android:layout_width="fill_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content">
            </EditText>

            <Button android:text="@string/label_submit_button"
                android:id="@+id/Button"
                android:layout_width="wrap_content"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content">
            </Button>

    </LinearLayout>

</LinearLayout>

What this looks like is on the left and what I want it to look like is on the right.

The obvious answer is to set the TextView to fill_parent on height, but this causes no room to be left for the button or entry field.

Essentially the issue is that I want the submit button and the text entry to be a fixed height at the bottom and the text view to fill the rest of the space. Similarly, in the horizontal linear layout I want the submit button to wrap its content and for the text entry to fill the rest of the space.

If the first item in a linear layout is told to fill_parent it does exactly that, leaving no room for other items. How do I get an item which is first in a linear layout to fill all space apart from the minimum required by the rest of the items in the layout?

Relative layouts were indeed the answer:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <RelativeLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent">

    <TextView
        android:text="@string/welcome"
        android:id="@+id/TextView"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentTop="true">
    </TextView>

    <RelativeLayout
        android:id="@+id/InnerRelativeLayout"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" >

        <Button
            android:text="@string/label_submit_button"
            android:id="@+id/Button"
            android:layout_alignParentRight="true"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">
        </Button>

        <EditText
            android:id="@+id/EditText"
            android:layout_width="fill_parent"
            android:layout_toLeftOf="@id/Button"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content">
        </EditText>

    </RelativeLayout>

</RelativeLayout>