Proposal: Avoiding nested views with a merge tag

[Yennick Trevels]

One of the most common performance problems in RIA frameworks is having a
deeply nested component tree. One of the reasons is the use of xml for
declaring the layout (fxml in case of JavaFx). The problem with xml is that
when you want to group multiple components in a separate fxml for reuse
purposes, you have to define a root tag, which in most frameworks will
create an extra (potentially unnecessary) node in the displaylist.

The way Android has solved this is by using a <merge> tag, which doesn't
create an extra node in the displayList. A good overview of this tag can be
found here:
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2009/03/android-layout-tricks-3-optimize-by.html

Imo such a tag is something which can also be very useful for JavaFx since
it's also node-based, certainly since performance is key in RIA
applications.

Is something like this already in development and if not, what are your
thoughts about this?


Greetz,
Yennick