Default methods in JFX-8

[Danno Ferrin]

On Thu, Oct 3, 2013 at 12:24 PM, Petr Pchelko <petr.pchelko at oracle.com>wrote:

> Hello, OpenJFX Community.
>
> There's a question about using Java 8 features in FX.
>
> I've been working on the support for InputMethods in JFXPanel which is an
> important feature for many users who speak hieroglyphic languages.
> The issue is tracked under: https://javafx-jira.kenai.com/browse/RT-13248
>
> In order to have a high-quality support we need to change
> javafx.scene.input.InputMethodRequests interface and introduce 3 new
> methods. This is not needed for pure FX applications right now, but
> absolutely required for InputMethods in the JFXPanel. However, the
> interface is public and it was present since FX2.0, so changing it would
> become a breaking change. So the only way to avoid the problem is using the
> default methods. Those would return some stub values, the JDK is OK with
> that, as it would not crash or throw exceptions, but text composition would
> not work correctly.
>
> I know that we want to avoid using the Java 8 features in the JFX-8, so I
> wanted to ask - is it OK to use the default methods here?
>
>
If you are staying away from JDK8 features for the JFX78 backport, don't
worry.  There are more issues with new JDK8 APIs than with the new language
features.

For example there were default methods put into some collections classes
that we solved by pushing them down to the first implements.  But the Date
and Time picker depends on the new time package.  The threeten backport
won't be updated until after 8 ships, so that has been removed so far.

I'de be interested to know what a wholesale lamdaization would result in
speed wise and code size wise (both source and compiled).  From what I can
tell the IDEs can lambda and de-lambda fairly easily, so it jsut makes the
backport more of a busy work proposition.  If there were performance gains
it would also make a great front page story in the next java magazine or a
case study..