spinner component

[Tom Eugelink]

Yup. Since basically a year value is endless, if you want to support that situation, we need to use an endless value (me is purist).

The overhead performancewise of using a BigInteger is minimal compared to the whole of the UI. And for must end users the provided supporting classes will hide that that; there can be a ListDataProvider and the spinner can have a constructor which take a list as the parameter. There also can be a YearDataProvider, MonthDataProvider, etc.

Tom



On 17-12-2011 9:20, Tom Schindl wrote:
> really a biginteger? Wouldn't a long or even int be enough?
>
> Tom
>
> Am 17.12.11 09:16, schrieb Tom Eugelink:
>> I would like to propose the addition of a spinner control to OpenJFX.
>>
>> A spinner control for all means and purposes is a listview where only
>> one cell is visible (rendered) at a time. Moving to the next and
>> previous cell is done via clicking with the mouse on arrows or using
>> keyboard presses. The control's API could look like:
>>
>> Class: *Spinner<T>  extends Control*
>> T denotes the type it is holding; String, Integer, any bean.
>>
>> Properties:
>> *- ObjectProperty<T>  valueProperty()
>> *  The value property holds the currently displayed (selected) value
>> *
>> - ObjectProperty<Boolean>  cyclicProperty()
>> *  Cyclic means that the spinners cycles back to the beginning when the
>> end of the list of values is reached, e.g. december ->  next ->  januari,
>> or vice versa (januari ->  previous ->  december).
>>
>> Methods:
>> *- public void decrease()
>> *  programatically select the previous value
>> *
>> - public void increase()
>> *  programatically select the next value
>>
>> Events
>> *- ObjectProperty<EventHandler<CycleEvent>>  onCycleProperty()
>> *  OnCycle method gets called when the spinners cycles (see cyclic
>> property).
>>
>> A value change event is not needed, since registering to the value
>> property will take care of that.  Detecting a cycle based on value
>> changes is cumbersome, so hence the OnCycle event.
>>
>>
>> Implementation considerations:
>>
>> Since this actually is a list-with-just-one-cell, adopting a cell
>> factory may be a good idea.
>>
>> Even though a spinner is a list-with-just-one-cell, using a list as its
>> data source is restrictive, because lists always have a lower and upper
>> bound. For example, take a spinner that selects a year: the value "year"
>> has no natural lower and upper bound. It could have in certain
>> situations, but as a concept it has not. Therefor I would like to
>> propose the usage of a data provider, in this case a
>> single-value-linear-data-provider. Such a data provider uses a
>> BigInteger to represent the current value and can increment or decrement.
>>
>> Data provide API:
>> - *public BigInteger getPreviousIdx(BigInteger idx);*
>>    Calculate the previous index given the provided one, returning null if
>> there is no previous. (Spinner may cycle.)
>>
>> - *public BigInteger getNextIdx(BigInteger idx);*
>>    Calculate the next index given the provided one, returning null if
>> there is no next. (Spinner may cycle.)
>>
>> - *public T getValue(BigInteger idx);*
>>    Return the value for the specified index, could return null as a valid
>> value
>>
>> - *public BigInteger getIdx(T value);*
>>    Return the idx for the specified value, returning null means the value
>> does not exist
>>
>> The DataProvider can be based on an actual list, or on an implementation
>> allowing the endless selection of a year.
>>
>> A initial (but fully working) implementation can be found at
>> http://code.google.com/p/jfxtras/source/browse/controls/src/main/java/jfxtras/scene/control/SpinnerX.java
>> (screenshot attached to the email).
>>
>> Tom
>>
>>
>>
>