RichTextArea: API Review

[Nir Lisker]

My questions are similar to the ones in the previous discussion, but now I
can be more specific.

I see a list of "building blocks" in
https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8300569, which I like. Specifically,
two types of building blocks additions are important as I see it: rich
text-specific ones like document models and a way to add decorations/colors
etc., and the split of controls in general into skin/input/behavior (on
which there has been a long discussion). My questions are:

1. If these are provided to the user, how difficult is it for them to
compose a RTA? JavaFX doesn't provide some somewhat-common controls that
you see in various other libraries with the reasoning that the library
should give the user the ability to create their own controls (which is not
so easy right now). Is RTA an exception, like ColorPicker and DatePicker?
2. Can these building blocks be used to enhance existing controls? For
example, to help with TextArea's performance with long texts, or allow rich
text-like features in other controls, like the squiggly red line under the
text in a TextField?
3. As also mentioned in the proposal, there are already 3rd party RTAs -
RichTextFX and Gluon's. Does the proposed RTA offer more than these
(besides the ease of use by being in JavaFX)? Do the building blocks of
these offer advantages that the proposed building blocks don't? An abstract
test that can be done is to see if these controls can be "retrofitted" with
the proposed new building blocks (no need to actually rewrite the code). If
not, it could hint to an incompatibility or a limit of the proposal that
makes it less appealing.

Thanks,
Nir


On Fri, Aug 2, 2024 at 10:41 PM Andy Goryachev <andy.goryachev at oracle.com>
wrote:

> Dear fellow developers:
>
>
>
> Thank you for the early feedback on the RichTextArea proposal [0].
>
>
>
> We are moving to the next phase by submitting the public pull request [1].
> The main goal is to include the new control in an incubating module [8],
> hopefully in jfx24, as a means of putting non-final API in the hands of
> developers while the API and implementation progress towards either
> finalization or removal in a future release.
>
>
>
> For your convenience, two test applications are provided -
> *RichTextAreaDemoApp* and *CodeAreaDemoApp* which demonstrate the new
> controls with a number of different models.  In addition to these two
> testers, please check out a simple standalone rich text editor application,
> *RichEditorDemoApp*,
>
>
>
> We would encourage anyone - the javafx developers, and especially the
> application developers, to take a look at the public API [3].  It's
> probably less important at this stage to do a deep code review of the
> implementation, but we would certainly appreciate and welcome your code
> review comments.
>
>
>
> Thank you in advance,
>
> -andy
>
>
>
>
>
> [0] Proposal:
> https://github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/Test/blob/main/doc/RichTextArea/RichTextArea.md
>
> [1] Pull request: https://github.com/openjdk/jfx/pull/1524
>
> [2] Discussion points:
> https://github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/Test/blob/main/doc/RichTextArea/RichTextAreaDiscussion.md
>
> [3] API specification (javadoc):
> https://cr.openjdk.org/~angorya/RichTextArea/javadoc
>
> [4] CSS Reference:
> https://cr.openjdk.org/~angorya/RichTextArea/javadoc/javafx.graphics/javafx/scene/doc-files/cssref.html
>
> [5] Behavior doc:
> https://github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/jfx/blob/8301121.RichTextArea/doc-files/behavior/RichTextAreaBehavior.md
>
> [6] RichTextArea RFE: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8301121
>
> [7] Previous (now obsolete) draft pull request:
> https://github.com/openjdk/jfx/pull/1374
>
> [8] Incubator module JEP:
> https://github.com/kevinrushforth/jfx/blob/javafx.incubator/INCUBATOR-MODULES.md
>
>
>
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