[External] : Re: RichTextArea: API Review

Wed Aug 14 22:39:13 UTC 2024

Yes, that clarifies a lot, thanks! I'll have a look at the API and
functionality of the demos.

On Wed, Aug 14, 2024 at 9:09 PM Andy Goryachev <andy.goryachev at oracle.com>
wrote:

> Dear Nir, everyone:
>
>
>
> Thank you for asking these good questions!
>
>
>
>
>
> 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?
>
>
>
> To create a full equivalent of the RTA as implemented in
> https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8301121 - difficult.
>
>
>
> For starters, there are several missing pieces – some do not have public
> API, and some are just missing.  No public API: focus traversal APIs, text
> layout information, input map.  Missing – tab stop policy.  My intent is to
> make all of these available as public API, as well as fix some of the
> related bugs.  RTA is a complex control, and in that sense it goes beyond
> the Date/ColorPicker level of complexity, but the general idea is the same
> (as Robert explained earlier): to give the developers a fully functional
> control that can be used out of the box, or can serve as a basis for more
> complex things.
>
>
>
>
>
> 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?
>
>
>
> Some of the builing blocks are already available: for example, rich text
> can be rendered by using TextFlow set as a graphic on a Label.
>
>
>
> Adding a squiggly line or similar decoration to the TextArea might also be
> possible.
>
>
>
> Support for long texts in TextArea... I must say that pretty much nothing
> in the TextArea is done with long texts in mind.  Redesigning of TextArea
> for long texts or performance is rather unlikely for obvious reasons (one
> of which is textProperty).  One have to resort to paragraph-based text
> model and virtualization to do that, and even then the proposed
> RichTextArea will struggle with long paragraphs.
>
>
>
>
>
> 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.
>
>
>
> Robert already addressed this in his earlier response (thank you,
> Robert!), so let me just reiterate one point: the proposed RTA is simpler
> than RichTextFX offering.  Simpler to use, and simpler in terms of
> supported features – does not offer tables, for instance.  There are still
> use cases which RTA won’t be able to address, and for which an external
> library is still needed.
>
>
>
> Thanks again for good questions.  Did I provide good answers?
>
>
>
> -andy
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *From: *Nir Lisker <nlisker at gmail.com>
> *Date: *Wednesday, August 14, 2024 at 05:04
> *To: *Andy Goryachev <andy.goryachev at oracle.com>
> *Cc: *openjfx-dev at openjdk.org <openjfx-dev at openjdk.org>
> *Subject: *[External] : Re: RichTextArea: API Review
>
> 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
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/Test/blob/main/doc/RichTextArea/RichTextArea.md__;!!ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!ObEX8HGQdm3Luimk7A9mRrJzS0gFeKC4Ys9K2gFkf9Sy_MN_X0OtuWziJDW3btm8gyihirZMlkJO9t4274lJ$>
>
> [1] Pull request: https://github.com/openjdk/jfx/pull/1524
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/github.com/openjdk/jfx/pull/1524__;!!ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!ObEX8HGQdm3Luimk7A9mRrJzS0gFeKC4Ys9K2gFkf9Sy_MN_X0OtuWziJDW3btm8gyihirZMlkJO9gf9BYIK$>
>
> [2] Discussion points:
> https://github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/Test/blob/main/doc/RichTextArea/RichTextAreaDiscussion.md
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/Test/blob/main/doc/RichTextArea/RichTextAreaDiscussion.md__;!!ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!ObEX8HGQdm3Luimk7A9mRrJzS0gFeKC4Ys9K2gFkf9Sy_MN_X0OtuWziJDW3btm8gyihirZMlkJO9nUSujTl$>
>
> [3] API specification (javadoc):
> https://cr.openjdk.org/~angorya/RichTextArea/javadoc
>
> [4] CSS Reference:
> https://cr.openjdk.org/~angorya/RichTextArea/javadoc/javafx.graphics/javafx/scene/doc-files/cssref.html
>
> [5] Behavior doc:
> https://github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/jfx/blob/8301121.RichTextArea/doc-files/behavior/RichTextAreaBehavior.md
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/jfx/blob/8301121.RichTextArea/doc-files/behavior/RichTextAreaBehavior.md__;!!ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!ObEX8HGQdm3Luimk7A9mRrJzS0gFeKC4Ys9K2gFkf9Sy_MN_X0OtuWziJDW3btm8gyihirZMlkJO9pq__cpG$>
>
> [6] RichTextArea RFE: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8301121
>
> [7] Previous (now obsolete) draft pull request:
> https://github.com/openjdk/jfx/pull/1374
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/github.com/openjdk/jfx/pull/1374__;!!ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!ObEX8HGQdm3Luimk7A9mRrJzS0gFeKC4Ys9K2gFkf9Sy_MN_X0OtuWziJDW3btm8gyihirZMlkJO9v4KgU9J$>
>
> [8] Incubator module JEP:
> https://github.com/kevinrushforth/jfx/blob/javafx.incubator/INCUBATOR-MODULES.md
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/github.com/kevinrushforth/jfx/blob/javafx.incubator/INCUBATOR-MODULES.md__;!!ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!ObEX8HGQdm3Luimk7A9mRrJzS0gFeKC4Ys9K2gFkf9Sy_MN_X0OtuWziJDW3btm8gyihirZMlkJO9pjE-pZ5$>
>
>
>
>
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