Re: [java-gnome-hackers] TextView frustrations

[Gerald B. <ger...@gm...>]

Hi There. Just saw this. Thought I'd chime in. Here are some thoughts.....

On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 7:34 PM, Andrew Cowie <
an...@op...> wrote:

> Well, maybe a quarter of the way into figuring out TextView, I have to
> note that I am vastly dissatisfied.
>
> It's an ugly API. I mean, sure TreeView/TreeModel were complex, but
> powerful and you could, once you'd wrapped your mind around it, deal
> with that complexity.
>
> TextView/TextBuffer on the other hand, are underwhelming. Whether the
> cursor is visible or not is a method on TextView, but placeCursor() is a
> method on TextBuffer. Oh, except for placeCursorOnscreen(), which is
> back on TextView.
>

I've never used this API before, but, this feels and sounds correct to me.
Change position of cursor within the text without regard to view, use the
"TextBuffer" method. Place it with respect to a particular view, use the
"TextView" method. Seems Right! No?


> If you want to move a pointer forward you use TextIter's forwardLine().
> Unless you want to move it forward a line in the Widget, in which case
> it's TextView's forwardDisplayLine(). And so on.


Again, seems right. Do you want to move forward a logical line of text or a
displayed line of text? Display -> View, Logical -> Buffer. Sounds right to
me. No?


>
> Oh yeah - don't even try to make scrolling work sensibly.
>

Can't comment on this. What seems not sensible? Just curious.


>
> It's all pretty discouraging. With TreeViewColumn/CellRenderer we made a
> fairly significant API style change but one which introduced some real
> sanity to the family as a whole. I'm pretty pleased with how that worked
> out. With TextView/TextBuffer, however, I am at a bit of a loss. It
> doesn't feel right. Every time I try to use it to do something it is
> either not where I expect it to be or not there at all.
>
> So obviously I am feeling the temptation to "do something about it" but
> unlike before it is really not obvious what unifying vision would drive
> such a divergence.
>
> Even more  obviously I must be missing something, but without someone
> who *knows* GtkTextView *really* well working on this it's been a bit
> tough.
>

Wish I could be of more help here. Never really used this API.
Unfortunately, don't have any spare time right now any-who (so feel free to
tell me to pound salt ;) )


>        [I already have more than enough to drive what I wrote 4-5 years
>        ago, but then I was just displaying text, not manipulating it]
>
> To this point Stefan Prelle has been contributing boat loads, and has
> done much of the grunt work. So we're getting there. What's missing is
> the big picture
>
> Anyone who has an interest in seeing TextView coverage in java-gnome
> would probably be of great help.
>
> There has been a bit of tinkering; changing scroll_to_mark and
> scroll_to_iter into a family of scrollTo() overrides seemed to make
> sense. It didn't help that it turns out that the real
> gtk_text_view_scroll_to_iter() is *busted* and doesn't work for shit.
>
> My work is available on the branch at 'hackers/andrew/textview' branch;
> and most of Stefan's contributions are included in there. That branch is
> *NOT* anywhere near merge ready, but you can at least tinker with it.
> This isn't 'mainline'; API subject to change, etc etc.
>
> AfC
> Sydney
>
> --
> Andrew Frederick Cowie
>
> Operational Dynamics is an operations and engineering consultancy
> focusing on IT strategy, organizational architecture, systems
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