RFR: 8283269: Improve definition and use of jdk.javadoc.internal.doclets.toolkit.Content

[Jonathan Gibbons]

On Wed, 16 Mar 2022 16:47:12 GMT, Jonathan Gibbons <jjg at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> This PR started in a draft mode as a refactoring effort. After a few commits and chats with Jonathan Gibbons, I decided that further refactoring belongs to follow-up PRs and that this PR could be marked as "Ready for review".
>> 
>> The motivation for the initial refactoring effort was as follows. The word "tree" is heavily overloaded in the JavaDoc codebase, both in comments and code. Here are some of the contexts this word appears in:  
>> 
>>   * Hierarchy Tree (i.e. overview-tree.html and package-tree.html)
>>   * DocTree (AST nodes)
>>   * ClassTree, *TreeWriter (data structures and entities related to supertype-subtype relationship)
>>   * HtmlTree (HTML nodes) and specifically UL/OL elements which are nested lists
>> 
>> Sometimes contexts overlap, making the word "tree" ambiguous. To reduce this ambiguity, the word "tree" should be dropped in favor of a more specific word of phrase where possible.
>> 
>> In the case where the context is `jdk.javadoc.internal.doclets.toolkit.Content`, the programmer is already aware that they are dealing with trees in the sense that `Content` objects support recursive composition. There's no need to have the phrase "content tree" where "content" would do. Moreover, in the context that is exclusively about `Content` objects, the word "content" can be dropped too, since the type information is assumed.
>> 
>> As an example of content overlap, have a look at the source of `jdk.javadoc.internal.doclets.toolkit.builders.MemberSummaryBuilder::buildSummary`. This method used to needlessly mix DocTree with Content tree.
>
> src/jdk.javadoc/share/classes/jdk/javadoc/internal/doclets/formats/html/AbstractMemberWriter.java line 298:
> 
>> 296: 
>> 297:     /**
>> 298:      * Adds use information to the documentation.
> 
> An alternative would be one of
> * Adds use information to the given content.
> * Adds use information to the specified content.

Or, 


Adds use information for a list of elements to the specified content.
@param the list of elements

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PR: https://git.openjdk.java.net/jdk/pull/7843