Rich Text Support

[John-Val Rose]

OK, thanks Kevin and everyone else who provided reasoning to answer my question.

As I said, I was “curious” but the arguments put forward have satisfied that curiosity :-)

I agree that by allowing the JavaFX team to focus on lower level functionality, it is a means of expediting progress to the core library thus enabling others to create many  more controls in 3rd party libraries.

Who knows - maybe we’ll end up with 10 different really good rich text editors if such important core features like font metrics etc. are implemented within JavaFX itself!

> On 6 Oct 2018, at 06:51, Pedro Duque Vieira <pedro.duquevieira at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I agree. 
> 
> A UI framework needs at least a standard set of controls in its core. I'd say at least 90% of UI apps being created need at least a couple of UI controls.
> 
> I think we should focus on having a strong core library that would allow to build additional controls, by at least third parties. Things like FontMetrics like API are strongly needed, not just for Rich Text editor and not just for UI controls and should be the priority. Other things that can be built outside the openjfx, like a rich text editor, are nice to have but not a priority.
> 
> I agree that things like rich text editors can be built outside first and then integrated. I believe this is the best workflow has it allows for prototyping,  experimenting,  getting feedback from users and iterating. And when it has a pretty solid API and user experience it can be integrated inside the openjfx library, because then things will get much more complicated to change and break.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
>> On Fri, Oct 5, 2018 at 9:32 PM Kevin Rushforth <kevin.rushforth at oracle.com> wrote:
>> Note that I did say "at least at first" when I was agreeing that it 
>> should likely not be part of the core. Developing a RichText control is 
>> going to be a big task that will likely take a bit of experimenting to 
>> get everything right. Doing that externally would allow for more rapid 
>> prototyping and testing before committing to a core API. If it becomes 
>> something that is generally considered useful, and fits well with the 
>> other controls, then I don't necessarily see a problem getting it into 
>> the core (although it would need to go through an feature review just 
>> like any new API). That was what we did for Alert and Spinner when they 
>> were first implemented; both needed a fair bit of additional work before 
>> bringing it into javafx.controls, but it was heavily leveraged by the 
>> work done in ControlsFX.
>> 
>> Btw, I might feel the same way about, say, DatePicker if we were 
>> developing it now. However, I do think that almost all of the current 
>> set fit within what I would expect a UI toolkit to provide as a default 
>> set of controls.
>> 
>> Johan might have a somewhat different take on this, so it would be good 
>> to get his thoughts.
>> 
>> -- Kevin
>> 
>> 
>> On 10/5/2018 12:59 PM, John-Val Rose wrote:
>> > Kevin,
>> >
>> > I am somewhat curious as to this idea that new JavaFX controls should not be part of the core toolkit.
>> >
>> > Why do feel this way?
>> >
>> > And I guess it begs the question: Why have *any* controls in the core of JavaFX at all?
>> >
>> > Graciously,
>> >
>> > John-Val Rose
>> > Rosethorn Technology
>> >
>> >> On 5 Oct 2018, at 23:34, Kevin Rushforth <kevin.rushforth at oracle.com> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> I agree that new controls, especially a RichText control, should very likely not be part of the core -- at least not at first. Somewhere like ControlsFX might be a great place to develop it. What we need to do is identify the missing pieces that prevent it from being implemented as an external control. The text measurement API is one such missing piece, but I'll bet there are others.
>> >>
>> >> -- Kevin
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>> On 10/3/2018 11:08 AM, Tom Schindl wrote:
>> >>> Hi,
>> >>>
>> >>> I fully agree and I don't think such a control should be part of the
>> >>> OpenJFX but should live in an other library.
>> >>>
>> >>> /me thinks OpenJFX should not get *ANY* new controls (I would even argue
>> >>> that the current controls should be split out) but provide the core APIs
>> >>> needed to implement them.
>> >>>
>> >>> Tom
>> >>>
>> >>>> On 03.10.18 19:39, Phil Race wrote:
>> >>>>
>> >>>>> On 10/03/2018 05:50 AM, Pedro Duque Vieira wrote:
>> >>>>> I think to start, probably a class like Swing's FontMetrics would be good
>> >>>>> to have? Before Java 9 there was one but it was private implementation.
>> >>>>> Just to have the basic API that would allow to build rich text editing
>> >>>>> support more easily, sorted out..
>> >>>>> This is also, generally, needed for calculating how to lay out text.
>> >>>> I agree, and maybe I should aim to finally implement this in 12 :
>> >>>> https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8090775: Need font/text
>> >>>> measurement API
>> >>>>
>> >>>> -phil.
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Pedro Duque Vieira - https://www.pixelduke.com