[Swingosc-devel] JSCMenuNode - opinion wanted

[Sciss <co...@sc...>]

hi,

in the current (experimental) SVN version of SwingOSC, i have  
injected my application framework that includes a window and menu bar  
manager. this has many pros but maybe some downsides so i'm happy to  
receive feedback on this decision.

in particular:
- JSCWindow now is not directly associated with a javax.swing.JFrame  
but de.sciss.common.AppWindow which is a wrapper around the JFrame  
functionality - with the advantage of being switchable to  
JInternalFrames:

	JSCWindow.internalFrames = true;
	g.reboot;
	JSCWindow.viewPalette;

this will create one master application frame inside which all  
JSCWindows are placed as "internal frames", something familiar for  
Windows users (and maybe Linux) i think. While this is still buggy,  
eventually also the window type can be set to "floating palettes".  
The downside is that some custom code relying on JSCWindow being  
represented by a JFrame might brake, but i guess that is a rare  
assumption.

- the default menu factory of the application framework will set up a  
menu bar with the close item (cmd+w) in the file menu and a list of  
all open windows in the window menu. the minimize item (cmd+m) is  
also in the window menu, and a helper item "collect windows" to  
ensure all windows are in the visible part of the screen.

- the possible downside of this is that on Windows and Linux when  
internal frames are _not_ used, each JSCWindow will have a tiny menu  
bar attached to its title bar. Don't know if that is too ugly or  
uncomfortable? If so, one could think about removing the default menu  
bar again unless user menus are created, while keeping the cmd+w and  
cmd+m shortcuts (as was before).

- the file JSCMenu.sc has been added for user menus. it contains the  
abstract superclass JSCMenuNode plus its descendants JSCMenuGroup,  
JSCMenuItem, JSCMenuCheckItem, JSCMenuSeparator. The help file  
JSCMenuNode.html explains how to use them. Currently, the menus are  
application wide, so if internal frames are _not_ used, the menus  
replicate over all JSCWindows. don't know if this is too ugly? (OS X  
users are lucky because the menu bar is by default placed at the  
screen title bar).

there are still some issues, e.g. in internal-frames mode, borderless  
windows have some problems i think.

ciao, -sciss-