[External] : Re: Proposal: RichTextArea Control (Incubator)

[Andy Goryachev]

Dear Daniel:

Thank you for your kind words!

Re: StyledTextArea/TextField.

This is a very interesting question.  It is definitely out of scope right now, but we can certainly talk about it.

One major difference between the new control and the regular TextField/TextArea is that we add a separate rich text model, while TextField/Area expose a String 'text' property.  We could think of using the same model, or constructing some kind of StyledDocument, but in any case it won't be a drop-in replacement for TextField/TextArea.

The other aspect is the visuals.  Whereas a StyledTextArea might require the same kinds of surrounding toolbars and controls to function as a useable editor (font, style, color, etc.), how would a StyledTextField look?

At the same time, it is possible to easily configure RichTextArea to look like a styled text area or one-line styled text field.  It is also possible that another use case exists which requires a dedicated control?


Re: spell checker.

Yes, there is a way to add a "squiggly line", see here:
https://github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/Test/blob/rich.jep.review/doc/RichTextArea/RichTextArea.md#creating-a-paragraph

At this moment, this functionality is not a part of any standard model, but is certainly possible.

It might be also possible to add a similar functionality to the regular TextField/TextArea using public APIs, simply by adding a "squiggly" line shape over the standard control.  Just a thought.

What do you think?

-andy



From: Daniel Peintner <daniel.peintner at gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, February 22, 2024 at 03:07
To: Andy Goryachev <andy.goryachev at oracle.com>
Cc: openjfx-dev at openjdk.org <openjfx-dev at openjdk.org>
Subject: [External] : Re: Proposal: RichTextArea Control (Incubator)
Hi Andy, others,

I highly appreciate and welcome the effort of a built-in RichTextArea 👍.

A question that popped up in my mind is whether this work might include work in the area of *rich* TextField also? Probably it is out of scope. Anyhow, JavaFX Textfields are used in even more areas in UI controls like in tables etc and having the possibility to style them would be similarly convincing.

As you might know, some alternative *external* solutions like RichTextFX do provide next to StyleClassedTextArea also StyleClassedTextField.

Anyway, thank you very very much for the continuous development.

Sincerely,

-- Daniel

P.S: Maybe just one line about the use case I have in mind. We do offer (based on RichTextFX) the ability to do "spell checking" on text (like you know from all word processors). A red underline shows a possible mistake and a ContextMenu offers fixes. This red line is therefore needed for text in TextArea but also for text in TextField


On Wed, Feb 21, 2024 at 7:07 PM Andy Goryachev <andy.goryachev at oracle.com<mailto:andy.goryachev at oracle.com>> wrote:
Dear JavaFX developers:

We would like to propose a new feature - rich text control, RichTextArea, intended to bridge the functional gap with Swing and its StyledEditorKit/JEditorPane.  The main design goal is to provide a control that is complete enough to be useful out-of-the box, as well as open to extension by the application developers.

This is a complex feature with a large API surface that would be nearly impossible to get right the first time, even after an extensive review.  We are, therefore, introducing this in an incubating module, javafx.incubator.richtext.   This will allow us to evolve the API in future releases without the strict compatibility constraints that other JavaFX modules have.

Please take a look at the proposal [0], a list of discussion points [1], and the API Specification (javadoc) [2]. While the proposed API is ready for review, it isn't complete nor set in stone. We are looking for feedback, and will update the proposal based on the suggestions we receive from the community.  We encourage you to comment either in the mailing list, or by leaving comments inline in a draft pull request [3].  For context, the links to the original RFE [4] and a list of missing APIs related to rich text [5] are provided below.

Sincerely,
Your friendly JavaFX development team.


References


[0] Proposal: https://github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/Test/blob/rich.jep.review/doc/RichTextArea/RichTextArea.md<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/Test/blob/rich.jep.review/doc/RichTextArea/RichTextArea.md__;!!ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!IlQ3CEOYq-2crYaLlWlt1Ew42B_xiNLnZcLfQ3wun2P4L_fRBJamLh4bu85KnkYW5vrsEW9AOHTpAEdsMKsAlCdn-SoW9xQ$>
[1] Discussion points: https://github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/Test/blob/rich.jep.review/doc/RichTextArea/RichTextAreaDiscussion.md<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/Test/blob/rich.jep.review/doc/RichTextArea/RichTextAreaDiscussion.md__;!!ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!IlQ3CEOYq-2crYaLlWlt1Ew42B_xiNLnZcLfQ3wun2P4L_fRBJamLh4bu85KnkYW5vrsEW9AOHTpAEdsMKsAlCdn8rIp1eU$>
[2] API specification (javadoc): https://cr.openjdk.org/~angorya/RichTextArea/javadoc
[3] Draft Pull Request for API comments and feedback: https://github.com/openjdk/jfx/pull/1374<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/github.com/openjdk/jfx/pull/1374__;!!ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!IlQ3CEOYq-2crYaLlWlt1Ew42B_xiNLnZcLfQ3wun2P4L_fRBJamLh4bu85KnkYW5vrsEW9AOHTpAEdsMKsAlCdnd7ZTRlQ$>
[4] RichTextArea RFE: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8301121
[5] Missing APIs related to rich text control: https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8300569

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