Proposal: RichTextArea Control (Incubator)

[Nir Lisker]

Hi all,

I don't use RT controls, so I can't comment about the specifics of this or
other implementations. However, people raised some good points that I would
like to be more specific about.

1. Can the "components" of the RTA be separated out so that other controls
can use them? For example, colored text segments and highlights can be
useful in any text control, like Label and TextField.
2. About creating new controls and the difficulty involved, aren't the long
discussions about splitting the behavior, skin, input etc. and John's
proposal in that regard addressing exactly that, giving the ability to
compose "facets" into controls?
3. It's obvious that the bar for what goes into a library (JavaFX, JDK and
all other GUI toolkits) is fluid. We don't *have* to provide a Button
because any 3rd party library can make one, but we all agree that it's a
good idea. More complex controls, like color picker and date picker could
be more controversial as they are not entirely standardized, but I think
it's OK to have them. The question is, how far does this go? Perhaps what
can help here is to look at various GUI toolkits and see what they provide
so we know what users expect. It also matters if they are intended for use
on mobile, in which case the set of controls is somewhat different.

- Nir

On Wed, Feb 21, 2024 at 8:07 PM Andy Goryachev <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
>
> [1] Discussion points:
> https://github.com/andy-goryachev-oracle/Test/blob/rich.jep.review/doc/RichTextArea/RichTextAreaDiscussion.md
>
> [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
>
> [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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