JSycamore User Manual

Book Metadata

CREATOR | Mark Raynsford
DATE | 2023-12-03T21:50:51+00:00
DESCRIPTION | Documentation for the jsycamore package.
IDENTIFIER | 1fbda2b1-9946-4b24-b058-2961fa16bc66
LANGUAGE | en
RIGHTS | Public Domain
TITLE | JSycamore User Manual

Table Of Contents

Cover

Colophon

Table Of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Model

2.1. Introduction

2.2. Architecture

2.3. Screens

2.3.1. Overview

2.3.2. Services

2.3.3. Events

2.3.3.1. Output Events

2.3.3.2. Input Event Dispatch

2.3.3.2.1. Description

2.3.3.2.2. Mouse Events

2.3.3.2.3. Keyboard Events

2.3.4. Theme

2.3.5. Viewport

2.4. Windows

2.4.1. Description

2.4.1.1. Overview

2.4.1.2. Window Order

2.4.1.3. Window Visibility

2.4.1.4. Window Layers

2.4.1.5. Snapping

2.4.2. Window Decorations

2.4.2.1. Standard Components

2.4.2.2. Close Button

2.4.2.2.1. Description

2.4.2.2.2. Events

2.4.2.3. Maximize Button

2.4.2.3.1. Description

2.4.2.3.2. Events

2.4.2.4. Menu Button

2.4.2.4.1. Description

2.4.2.5. Resize Handles

2.4.2.5.1. Overview

2.4.2.5.2. ResizeNW Handle

2.4.2.5.3. ResizeN Handle

2.4.2.5.4. ResizeNE Handle

2.4.2.5.5. ResizeE Handle

2.4.2.5.6. ResizeSE Handle

2.4.2.5.7. ResizeS Handle

2.4.2.5.8. ResizeSW Handle

2.4.2.5.9. ResizeW Handle

2.4.2.6. Title Bar

2.4.2.7. Content Area

2.5. Components

2.5.1. Description

2.5.2. Tree

2.5.3. Activity

2.5.4. Layout

2.5.5. Standard Components

2.6. Events

2.6.1. Description

2.6.2. Input Events

2.6.2.1. Description

2.6.2.2. Mouse Events

2.6.2.3. Keyboard Events

2.6.3. Output Events

2.7. Themes

2.7.1. Description

2.7.2. Window Components

2.7.3. Components

2.7.4. Theme Classes

2.7.5. Standard Theme Classes

2.8. Coordinate Systems

2.8.1. Overview

2.8.2. Component-Relative Space

2.8.3. Parent-Relative Space

2.8.4. RGBAPre Space

2.8.5. Text-Aligned Space

2.8.6. Viewport Space

2.8.7. Window Space

2.9. Rendering

2.9.1. Description

2.9.2. Render Nodes

3. Standard Components

3.1. Menus

3.1.1. Description

3.2. Text

3.2.1. Description

3.2.2. Text Sections

3.2.3. Font

3.2.4. Font Services

3.2.5. Measured Lines

3.2.6. Text Models

3.2.6.1. Overview

3.2.6.2. Multi-Line Model

3.2.6.2.1. Description

3.2.6.2.2. Selection

3.2.6.3. Single-Line Model

3.2.6.3.1. Description

3.2.6.3.2. Selection

3.3. Buttons

3.3.1. Description

3.3.2. Semantics

1. Introduction

The jsycamore package provides...

2. Model

2.1. Introduction

2.2. Architecture

2.3. Screens

2.3.1. Overview

2.3.2. Services

2.3.3. Events

2.3.3.1. Output Events

2.3.3.2. Input Event Dispatch

2.3.4. Theme

2.3.5. Viewport

2.4. Windows

2.4.1. Description

2.4.1.1. Overview

2.4.1.2. Window Order

2.4.1.3. Window Visibility

2.4.1.4. Window Layers

2.4.1.5. Snapping

2.4.2. Window Decorations

2.4.2.1. Standard Components

2.4.2.2. Close Button

2.4.2.3. Maximize Button

2.4.2.4. Menu Button

2.4.2.5. Resize Handles

2.4.2.6. Title Bar

2.4.2.7. Content Area

2.5. Components

2.5.1. Description

2.5.2. Tree

2.5.3. Activity

2.5.4. Layout

2.5.5. Standard Components

2.6. Events

2.6.1. Description

2.6.2. Input Events

2.6.2.1. Description

2.6.2.2. Mouse Events

2.6.2.3. Keyboard Events

2.6.3. Output Events

2.7. Themes

2.7.1. Description

2.7.2. Window Components

2.7.3. Components

2.7.4. Theme Classes

2.7.5. Standard Theme Classes

2.8. Coordinate Systems

2.8.1. Overview

2.8.2. Component-Relative Space

2.8.3. Parent-Relative Space

2.8.4. RGBAPre Space

2.8.5. Text-Aligned Space

2.8.6. Viewport Space

2.8.7. Window Space

2.9. Rendering

2.9.1. Description

2.9.2. Render Nodes

2.1. Introduction

This section of the documentation describes the theory of operation of the jsycamore package; the basic concepts and elements that make up the system as a whole.

2.2. Architecture

The top-level object in the jsycamore package is the screen. Screens act as containers for all UI elements, and individual screens are effectively isolated UI instances. Most applications will only create a single screen.

Within a screen, the top-level objects are windows. Windows provide all the typical windowing system actions such as opening, closing, maximizing, and resizing.

Inside each window is a content area within which is placed a tree of components. Components provide a standard set of UI elements such as buttons, text fields, images, etc.

2.2.4. Screens, Windows And Components

The visual appearances of windows, and the components contained within, are completely decided by configurable themes. Components and windows decide how UI elements behave and where they are placed, whilst themes are solely responsible for determining how UI elements look.

User interaction is implemented using events. The application hosting the screens is responsible for delivering events to screens, and the screen instances will relay those events to the relevant windows and components contained within.

The positions of UI elements are specified as values in strongly-typed coordinate systems, and the jsycamore package as a whole works entirely in terms of platform-independent coordinates. The jsycamore UI can be embedded into operating systems and used with graphics standards that use completely different conventions as long as events are submitted to the UI using the jsycamore coordinate systems; extensive static typing is used to make it difficult to use values in the wrong coordinate system at any point.

2.3. Screens

2.3.1. Overview

2.3.2. Services

2.3.3. Events

2.3.3.1. Output Events

2.3.3.2. Input Event Dispatch

2.3.3.2.1. Description

2.3.3.2.2. Mouse Events

2.3.3.2.3. Keyboard Events

2.3.4. Theme

2.3.5. Viewport

2.3.1. Overview

A screen is the top-level object in the jsycamore package. A screen acts as a container for windows, and provides access to various services such as facilities for opening menus, handling text selections, etc.

Most applications will only create a single screen, although there are no restrictions on creating multiple screens. Windows (and the components contained within) are confined to a single screen instance, and cannot be moved between screen instances.

2.3.2. Services

Screen instances expose service directories. Component implementations on a given screen can obtain references to various services via the screen's service directory. Screens are required to provide at least the following mandatory services:

2.3.2.2. Required Services

Type | Description
SyWindowServiceType | A service for creating and managing windows.
SyMenuServiceType | A service for creating and managing menus.
SyTextSelectionServiceType | A service for managing text selection.

2.3.3. Events

2.3.3.1. Output Events

A screen provides an observable stream of output events to which external code may subscribe.

2.3.3.2. Input Event Dispatch

2.3.3.2.1. Description

When any of the methods on the SyScreenMouseEventsType and SyScreenKeyEventsType interfaces are called, the screen will dispatch appropriate events to components inside windows that are visible on the screen.

2.3.3.2.2. Mouse Events

When dispatching mouse events, the process is as follows for an arbitrary mouse event e:

2.3.3.2.2.2. Mouse Event Dispatch

Get a list of the visible windows in order such that the frontmost windows are at the start of the list, and the rearmost windows are at the end of the list.

For each window w in the list of visible windows:

If the viewport-space position of the mouse event (the cursor position) falls within the viewport-space bounds of w, then ask w for the active component c that is overlapped by the cursor. The window implementation is required to return the most specific component for the given position; the component that is deepest within the tree of components for the given position. If there is no appropriate c, then continue on to the next window.

Assuming there was an existing component c, call the eventSend method on c, passing it the event e. The method will return a value that indicates whether the component consumed the event. If the event was consumed, execution stops here. Otherwise, if the event was not consumed, then the eventSend method is called on each recursively selected ancestor of c until either one of the ancestors consumes the event, or there are no more ancestors. If the event is consumed, execution stops here. If there are no more ancestors, we return to the first step and try the next visible window.

If no component in any of the examined windows consumes e, then e is discarded.

Typically, successfully dispatching a mouse event to a window will result in that window becoming focused.

2.3.3.2.3. Keyboard Events

Keyboard events...

2.3.4. Theme

A screen holds a reference to the current theme.

2.3.5. Viewport

A screen defines a viewport within which are placed windows. The viewport has an explicitly-defined size, but this may be freely changed at any point.

Applications embedding jsycamore inside fullscreen applications, or projected into 3D spaces, are responsible for translating the platform-specific coordinates produced by keyboard and mouse input systems into the correct viewport coordinate space. For example, jsycamore can be embedded into 3D scenes by casting rays in whatever is the host 3D engine's coordinate space, and then converting the ray/plane intersection coordinates to jsycamore's viewport space:

2.3.5.3. 3D Projection

2.4. Windows

2.4.1. Description

2.4.1.1. Overview

2.4.1.2. Window Order

2.4.1.3. Window Visibility

2.4.1.4. Window Layers

2.4.1.5. Snapping

2.4.2. Window Decorations

2.4.2.1. Standard Components

2.4.2.2. Close Button

2.4.2.2.1. Description

2.4.2.2.2. Events

2.4.2.3. Maximize Button

2.4.2.3.1. Description

2.4.2.3.2. Events

2.4.2.4. Menu Button

2.4.2.4.1. Description

2.4.2.5. Resize Handles

2.4.2.5.1. Overview

2.4.2.5.2. ResizeNW Handle

2.4.2.5.3. ResizeN Handle

2.4.2.5.4. ResizeNE Handle

2.4.2.5.5. ResizeE Handle

2.4.2.5.6. ResizeSE Handle

2.4.2.5.7. ResizeS Handle

2.4.2.5.8. ResizeSW Handle

2.4.2.5.9. ResizeW Handle

2.4.2.6. Title Bar

2.4.2.7. Content Area

2.4.1. Description

2.4.1.1. Overview

2.4.1.2. Window Order

2.4.1.3. Window Visibility

2.4.1.4. Window Layers

2.4.1.5. Snapping

2.4.1.1. Overview

2.4.1.1.1. Windows

A window is an interactive, resizable, rectangular region that acts as a container for components.

2.4.1.2. Window Order

Each window is assigned an abstract order value by the screen in which it resides. The order encodes the notion of windows being in a stack, with the window at the top of the stack being the frontmost or focused window. When the user clicks on any component within a window, that window is moved to the top of the stack and becomes focused.

2.4.1.3. Window Visibility

Windows are either visible, or invisible. An invisible window is not rendered, and does not receive events.

When a window's visibility changes, events of type SyWindowBecameInvisible or SyWindowBecameVisible will be published.

2.4.1.4. Window Layers

Windows can be grouped into layers. A layer is an integer value N such that all windows with a layer value less than N are considered to be below windows with layer value N. All windows with a layer value greater than N are considered to be above windows with layer value N.

Within an individual layer, window order decides which windows are above or below other windows in that layer.

Window layers are a somewhat advanced feature, and most applications will not need to use them directly. They are primarily useful for implementing UI elements that must temporarily appear above all other elements, such as notifications or menus. They are also useful for implementing user interfaces for games and other simulations; the game's HUD can be placed on one layer, and a "pause" screen UI can be placed on a separate layer above the HUD layer, and the layers can individually be shown or hidden as is appropriate.

2.4.1.5. Snapping

The positions and sizes of windows can be configured to snap to given values. For example, if a window's positionSnapping attribute is set to 16, whenever the position of a window is set (either manually, or via the user dragging the window), the position on both axes will snap to the nearest multiple of 16.

2.4.2. Window Decorations

2.4.2.1. Standard Components

2.4.2.2. Close Button

2.4.2.2.1. Description

2.4.2.2.2. Events

2.4.2.3. Maximize Button

2.4.2.3.1. Description

2.4.2.3.2. Events

2.4.2.4. Menu Button

2.4.2.4.1. Description

2.4.2.5. Resize Handles

2.4.2.5.1. Overview

2.4.2.5.2. ResizeNW Handle

2.4.2.5.3. ResizeN Handle

2.4.2.5.4. ResizeNE Handle

2.4.2.5.5. ResizeE Handle

2.4.2.5.6. ResizeSE Handle

2.4.2.5.7. ResizeS Handle

2.4.2.5.8. ResizeSW Handle

2.4.2.5.9. ResizeW Handle

2.4.2.6. Title Bar

2.4.2.7. Content Area

2.4.2.1. Standard Components

Windows are created with a standard set of attached components. These standard components allow users to perform actions such as closing windows, maximizing windows, and moving and resizing windows. Whether these components are visible or not is dependent upon both the window's theme, and other per-window configuration settings. By default, the standard components are visible if the window is configured as being decorated.

2.4.2.1.2. Decorated Window

As an example, the window shown in the above diagram appears as follows when marked as undecorated:

2.4.2.1.4. Undecorated Window

Windows can be switched between being decorated or undecorated at any time by setting the value of the decorated attribute. Note that, without window decorations, the user has very little control over the window: They cannot directly close it, move it, or resize it.

2.4.2.2. Close Button

2.4.2.2.1. Description

The close button, when clicked, closes the window. The button is a standard button and therefore follows the same behaviours with respect to keyboard and mouse interaction.

For a visible window, the close button is visible iff the following conditions hold:

2.4.2.2.1.3. Visibility Conditions

The window is decorated.

The window's closeButtonVisibility attribute is set to VISIBILITY_VISIBLE.

2.4.2.2.2. Events

When a window is closed, an event of type SyWindowClosed will be published.

2.4.2.3. Maximize Button

2.4.2.3.1. Description

The maximize button, when clicked, resizes the window to match the size of the screen's viewport. If the window has already been maximized, clicking the button again returns the window to its previous size. The button is a standard button and therefore follows the same behaviours with respect to keyboard and mouse interaction.

For a visible window, the maximize button is visible iff the following conditions hold:

2.4.2.3.1.3. Visibility Conditions

The window is decorated.

The window's maximizeButtonVisibility attribute is set to VISIBILITY_VISIBLE.

2.4.2.3.2. Events

When a window is maximized, an event of type SyWindowMaximized will be published. When a window is returned to normal size after having been maximized, an event of type SyWindowUnmaximized will be published.

2.4.2.4. Menu Button

2.4.2.4.1. Description

The menu button, when clicked, opens a menu containing a list of actions that can otherwise be performed by the other standard window buttons. Hypothetically, the menu button is capable of subsuming the functionality of the other window buttons at the cost of having the user go through an intermediate menu to perform actions. The button is a standard button and therefore follows the same behaviours with respect to keyboard and mouse interaction.

2.4.2.4.1.2. Menu Button Menu

For a visible window, the menu button is visible iff the following conditions hold:

2.4.2.4.1.4. Visibility Conditions

The window is decorated.

The window's menuButtonVisibility attribute is set to VISIBILITY_VISIBLE.

2.4.2.5. Resize Handles

2.4.2.5.1. Overview

Resize handles are typically placed on the edges and corners of windows (this is dependent upon the theme used), and allow the user to click and drag the handles to resize the windows.

There are up to eight visible resize handles, each corresponding to the eight compass directions, and each implementing a specific kind of resize behaviour as detailed in the following sections. The behaviour of each handle is specified in terms of the user dragging the handles on the X and Y axes independently; the resulting effect on the window should be understood to be the sum of the effects along both axes.

For a visible window, resize handle H is visible iff the following conditions hold:

2.4.2.5.1.4. Visibility Conditions

The window is decorated.

The window's theme specifies that H should be visible.

Note that it is not technically a requirement for a theme to allow any resize handle to be visible. However, making all handles invisible would be fairly user-hostile. Some applications may choose to design themes where only the southeast resize handle is visible, as this matches the design of many traditional windowing systems.

2.4.2.5.2. ResizeNW Handle

Dragging the northwest handle N units along the Y axis towards negative infinity will move the window N units towards negative infinity on the Y axis whilst also enlarging the window by N units on the Y axis.

Dragging the northwest handle M units along the X axis towards negative infinity will move the window M units towards negative infinity on the X axis whilst also enlarging the window by M units on the X axis.

Dragging the northwest handle P units along the Y axis towards positive infinity will move the window P units towards positive infinity on the Y axis whilst also shrinking the window by P units on the Y axis.

Dragging the northwest handle Q units along the X axis towards positive infinity will move the window Q units towards positive infinity on the X axis whilst also shrinking the window by Q units on the X axis.

2.4.2.5.2.5. Resize NW

2.4.2.5.3. ResizeN Handle

Dragging the north handle N units along the Y axis towards negative infinity will move the window N units towards negative infinity on the Y axis whilst also enlarging the window by N units on the Y axis.

Dragging the north handle M units along the Y axis towards positive infinity will move the window M units towards positive infinity on the Y axis whilst also shrinking the window by M units on the Y axis.

Dragging the north handle along the X axis has no effect on the window size or position.

2.4.2.5.3.4. Resize N

2.4.2.5.4. ResizeNE Handle

Dragging the northeast handle N units along the Y axis towards negative infinity will move the window N units towards negative infinity on the Y axis whilst also enlarging the window by N units on the Y axis.

Dragging the northeast handle M units along the X axis towards negative infinity will shrink the window by M units on the X axis.

Dragging the northeast handle P units along the Y axis towards positive infinity will move the window P units towards positive infinity on the Y axis whilst also shrinking the window by P units on the Y axis.

Dragging the northeast handle Q units along the X axis towards positive infinity will enlarge the window by M units on the X axis.

2.4.2.5.4.5. Resize NE

2.4.2.5.5. ResizeE Handle

Dragging the east handle M units along the X axis towards negative infinity will shrink the window by M units on the X axis.

Dragging the northeast handle Q units along the X axis towards positive infinity will enlarge the window by M units on the X axis.

Dragging the east handle along the Y axis has no effect on the window size or position.

2.4.2.5.5.4. Resize E

2.4.2.5.6. ResizeSE Handle

Dragging the southeast handle N units along the Y axis towards negative infinity will shrink the window by N units on the Y axis.

Dragging the southeast handle M units along the X axis towards negative infinity will shrink the window by M units on the X axis.

Dragging the southeast handle P units along the Y axis towards positive infinity will enlarge the window by P units on the Y axis.

Dragging the southeast handle Q units along the X axis towards positive infinity will enlarge the window by M units on the X axis.

2.4.2.5.6.5. Resize SE

2.4.2.5.7. ResizeS Handle

Dragging the south handle N units along the Y axis towards negative infinity will shrink the window by N units on the Y axis.

Dragging the south handle P units along the Y axis towards positive infinity will enlarge the window by P units on the Y axis.

Dragging the south handle along the X axis has no effect on the window size or position.

2.4.2.5.7.4. Resize S

2.4.2.5.8. ResizeSW Handle

Dragging the southwest handle N units along the Y axis towards negative infinity will shrink the window by N units on the Y axis.

Dragging the southwest handle M units along the X axis towards negative infinity will move the window M units towards negative infinity on the X axis whilst also enlarging the window by M units on the X axis.

Dragging the southwest handle P units along the Y axis towards positive infinity will enlarge the window by P units on the Y axis.

Dragging the southwest handle Q units along the X axis towards positive infinity will move the window Q units towards positive infinity on the X axis whilst also shrinking the window by Q units on the X axis.

2.4.2.5.8.5. Resize SW

2.4.2.5.9. ResizeW Handle

Dragging the west handle M units along the X axis towards negative infinity will move the window M units towards negative infinity on the X axis whilst also enlarging the window by M units on the X axis.

Dragging the west handle Q units along the X axis towards positive infinity will move the window Q units towards positive infinity on the X axis whilst also shrinking the window by Q units on the X axis.

Dragging the west handle along the Y axis has no effect on the window size or position.

2.4.2.5.9.4. Resize W

2.4.2.6. Title Bar

The title bar displays the contents of the window's title attribute, and allows the user to move the window by dragging with the mouse.

Dragging the title bar M units along the X axis will move the window M units along the X axis.

Dragging the title bar N units along the Y axis will move the window N units along the Y axis.

For a visible window, the title bar is visible iff the following conditions hold:

2.4.2.6.5. Visibility

The window is decorated.

2.4.2.7. Content Area

The content area is the rectangular region dedicated to the actual content of the window; it is the component that serves as the parent component of components added to the window for display. The content area itself is effectively invisible; themes should not render the content area as being any particular colour or shape. The content area does not consume any events.

For a visible window, the content area is always visible.

2.5. Components

2.5.1. Description

2.5.2. Tree

2.5.3. Activity

2.5.4. Layout

2.5.5. Standard Components

2.5.1. Description

Components are the elements that make up the user interface inside windows. Concretely, a component is any object that implements the SyComponentType interface. The package provides the abstract SyComponentAbstract class that provides sensible default implementations of all the required methods.

2.5.2. Tree

Components form a tree structure, with each component having an arbitrary number of child components, and at most one parent component. A component is said to be detached if it has no parent component, and it is also not the root component for a window. A detached component is not visited during layout operations or during event dispatch.

2.5.3. Activity

A component may be active or inactive. A component can be set to active or inactive by setting the value of the component's activity attribute. Inactivity is implicitly inherited; if the parent component P of a component C is inactive, then C is considered to be inactive.

An inactive component will not receive events during event dispatch. Additionally, themes are encouraged to render inactive components in a greyed-out form. For example, the button labelled "Button 1" in the following image is inactive and so cannot be clicked:

2.5.3.3. Inactive Button

2.5.4. Layout

Component layout...

2.5.5. Standard Components

The jsycamore package provides a set of standard components.

2.6. Events

2.6.1. Description

2.6.2. Input Events

2.6.2.1. Description

2.6.2.2. Mouse Events

2.6.2.3. Keyboard Events

2.6.3. Output Events

2.6.1. Description

Events are the primary means by which the jsycamore package accepts input from external code, and by which it publishes notifications on state changes.

Events are divided into input events and output events.

2.6.2. Input Events

2.6.2.1. Description

Input events are events that represent input to the UI. In order to remain fully platform-independent, the jsycamore package does not directly read from the keyboard and mouse. Instead, users are expected to be running jsycamore inside an existing system such as AWT, or perhaps embedded in a GPU context via GLFW, and are therefore responsible for translating input events coming from those systems into method calls defined on the SyScreenMouseEventsType and SyScreenKeyEventsType interfaces. When these methods are called, the screen will dispatch input events internally to any relevant components.

2.6.2.2. Mouse Events

Mouse events...

2.6.2.3. Keyboard Events

Keyboard events...

2.6.3. Output Events

Output events are events that indicate state changes that have occurred. For example, closing a window will publish an event.

Users may obtain access to a stream of output events from each screen.

2.7. Themes

2.7.1. Description

2.7.2. Window Components

2.7.3. Components

2.7.4. Theme Classes

2.7.5. Standard Theme Classes

2.7.1. Description

A theme is an entity responsible for deciding the visual appearance of windows and components. Primarily, themes can be considered to be functions from components to sets of render nodes, although they do have some other responsibilities with regard to window components.

2.7.2. Window Components

Windows come with a set of predefined decoration components. Themes are responsible for deciding, given a set of layout constraints, where each of these components are to be placed within the constraints.

2.7.3. Components

A theme contains a set of theme component functions that, given a component c, will return a set of render nodes that describe how c should be rendered. The actual theme component function evaluated for any given component is chosen based on the theme classes defined for the component.

2.7.4. Theme Classes

A theme class is a textual string that is used by themes to locate theme information for specific components. The process is as follows for a given theme T:

2.7.4.2. Theme Class Lookup

For a given component c, request the non-empty list S of style classes held by c:

For each style class k in S:

If the theme T contains a theme component function for k, then evaluate the component function, passing it c, and halt execution.

Otherwise, continue iterating over k.

If there were no theme component functions for any style class in S, then evaluate the fallback component function defined by the theme.

The fallback component function is a function that will yield render nodes if no other component function can handle the given component and style classes. The fallback function is defined internally to the theme, and will typically return render nodes that unambiguously indicate that something is wrong; the fallback function should not be evaluated unless something is wrong with the theme or the component is defined in a manner that makes it incompatible with the theme.

As components return a non-empty list of style classes in priority order, this allows components to essentially instruct themes on how to handle the components including potential fallback behaviour. For example, a component can return the list of style classes [AcmeMagicButton, Button]. This is the same as stating "If you have support for AcmeMagicButtons, then render this component as one of those. Otherwise, if you only have support for ordinary buttons, then render this component as one of those."

2.7.5. Standard Theme Classes

The jsycamore package defines a set of standard theme classes for which all themes should attempt to support at a minimum. These names are provided as part of the SyThemeClassNameStandard enum.

2.7.5.2. Standard Theme Classes

Name | Description
Button | A generic button.
Checkbox | A checkbox.
Container | A generic container.
GridView | A grid view.
ImageView | An image view.
ListView | A list view.
MenuBar | A menu bar.
MenuBarItem | A menu bar item.
MenuBarItemText | The text in a menu bar item.
MenuItem | A menu item.
MenuItemAtom | A menu atom item.
MenuItemSeparator | A menu separator item.
MenuItemSubmenu | A menu submenu item.
Menu | A menu.
MenuItemText | A menu item text.
Meter | A generic meter.
ScrollbarHorizontal | A horizontal scrollbar.
ScrollbarHorizontalTrack | A horizontal scrollbar track.
ScrollbarHorizontalButtonLeft | A horizontal scrollbar left button.
ScrollbarHorizontalButtonLeftIcon | A horizontal scrollbar left button icon.
ScrollbarHorizontalButtonRight | A horizontal scrollbar right button.
ScrollbarHorizontalButtonRightIcon | A horizontal scrollbar right button icon.
ScrollbarHorizontalButtonThumb | A horizontal scrollbar thumb button.
ScrollbarHorizontalButtonThumbIcon | A horizontal scrollbar thumb button icon.
ScrollbarVertical | A vertical scrollbar.
ScrollbarVerticalTrack | A vertical scrollbar track.
ScrollbarVerticalButtonUp | A vertical scrollbar up button.
ScrollbarVerticalButtonUpIcon | A vertical scrollbar up button icon.
ScrollbarVerticalButtonDown | A vertical scrollbar down button.
ScrollbarVerticalButtonDownIcon | A vertical scrollbar down button icon.
ScrollbarVerticalButtonThumb | A vertical scrollbar thumb button.
ScrollbarVerticalButtonThumbIcon | A vertical scrollbar thumb button icon.
ScrollPane | A scroll pane.
ScrollPaneContentArea | A scroll pane content area.
ScrollPaneContentAreaViewport | A scroll pane viewport.
TextArea | A text area.
TextField | A text field.
TextView | A text view.
TextMultilineView | A multi-line text view.
WindowButtonClose | The close button for a window.
WindowButtonCloseIcon | The close button icon for a window.
WindowButtonMaximize | The maximize button for a window.
WindowButtonMenu | The menu button for a window.
WindowContentArea | The content area for a window.
WindowResizeE | The east resize area for a window.
WindowResizeN | The north resize area for a window.
WindowResizeNE | The north-east resize area for a window.
WindowResizeNW | The north-west resize area for a window.
WindowResizeS | The south resize area for a window.
WindowResizeSE | The south-east resize area for a window.
WindowResizeSW | The south-west resize area for a window.
WindowResizeW | The west resize area for a window.
WindowRoot | The root component for a window.
WindowTitle | The title component for a window.
WindowTitleText | The title text component for a window.

2.8. Coordinate Systems

2.8.1. Overview

2.8.2. Component-Relative Space

2.8.3. Parent-Relative Space

2.8.4. RGBAPre Space

2.8.5. Text-Aligned Space

2.8.6. Viewport Space

2.8.7. Window Space

2.8.1. Overview

The jsycamore package defines numerous coordinate systems. All 2D coordinate systems are defined such that the origin (0, 0) represents the top left point of the coordinate system, with the X axis pointing rightwards towards positive infinity, and the Y axis pointing downwards towards positive infinity.

2.8.1.2. Coordinates

Positions in an N-dimensional coordinate system S with components of type T in jsycamore are defined as values of immutable vectors of type PVectorNT<S>. The phantom-type parameter S on the vector type statically prevents users of the package from mixing up coordinates in different coordinate systems and getting unexpected results. As a concrete example, the parent-relative space is a two-dimensional coordinate system with integer component values, and therefore positions in this coordinate system are given as values of type PVector2I<SySpaceParentRelativeType>.

The following sections describe the coordinate spaces currently defined by the jsycamore package.

2.8.2. Component-Relative Space

The component-relative space is a two-dimensional integer coordinate system where the origin (0, 0) represents the top-left corner of a component.

This coordinate space is primarily used by themes to produce render nodes.

2.8.3. Parent-Relative Space

The parent-relative space is a two-dimensional integer coordinate system where the origin (0, 0) represents the top-left corner of a parent component.

The positions of all components are specified in this space.

2.8.4. RGBAPre Space

The rgba-pre space is a four-dimensional real coordinate system describing linear, alpha-premultiplied colours. For example, a pure opaque black colour is represented by the point (0,0,0,1).

2.8.5. Text-Aligned Space

The text-aligned space is a two-dimensional integer coordinate system used to address text. It takes into account the alignment applied to text for left-to-right and right-to-left text.

2.8.6. Viewport Space

The viewport space is a two-dimensional integer coordinate system where the origin (0, 0) represents the top-left corner of a screen.

2.8.7. Window Space

The window space is a two-dimensional integer coordinate system where the origin (0, 0) represents the top-left corner of a window.

2.9. Rendering

2.9.1. Description

2.9.2. Render Nodes

2.9.1. Description

Rendering...

2.9.2. Render Nodes

Render nodes...

3. Standard Components

3.1. Menus

3.1.1. Description

3.2. Text

3.2.1. Description

3.2.2. Text Sections

3.2.3. Font

3.2.4. Font Services

3.2.5. Measured Lines

3.2.6. Text Models

3.2.6.1. Overview

3.2.6.2. Multi-Line Model

3.2.6.3. Single-Line Model

3.3. Buttons

3.3.1. Description

3.3.2. Semantics

3.1. Menus

3.1.1. Description

3.1.1. Description

A menu is a component that provides a tree-based structure from which users can select items.

3.1.1.2. Menu

3.2. Text

3.2.1. Description

3.2.2. Text Sections

3.2.3. Font

3.2.4. Font Services

3.2.5. Measured Lines

3.2.6. Text Models

3.2.6.1. Overview

3.2.6.2. Multi-Line Model

3.2.6.2.1. Description

3.2.6.2.2. Selection

3.2.6.3. Single-Line Model

3.2.6.3.1. Description

3.2.6.3.2. Selection

3.2.1. Description

The text components are a family of components that provide the ability to display, format, select, and modify text.

3.2.1.2. Text Area

3.2.2. Text Sections

The jsycamore package works in terms of immutable text sections. The concept of a text section is rather loosely defined, but it can be most easily thought of as representing a single paragraph of text. Each text section has an associated text direction indicating that the text is in a left-to-right language (such as English), or that the text is in a right-to-left language (such as Arabic, or Hebrew). There is currently no support for mixing directions within a single text section, although having many text sections with varying directions inside a single text view is fully supported.

3.2.2.2. Mixed Text Area

3.2.3. Font

A font defines the appearance and (ultimately) the layout of text. A font combines a typeface, a size, and a style (such as bold, italic, etc).

Fonts contain all the information required to determine what the bounding box will be for a given piece of text, and much more detailed information not limited to the widths and heights of individual characters. It is for this reason that fonts are considered to be an essential part of the layout of a given piece of text rather than just part of its appearance: A text view might be sized correctly for a specific piece of text using font F, but might be woefully undersized for the same piece of text using font G. The font interface exposes text formatting methods that can take a text section and a page width, and return a set of one or more measured lines that represent the original text section broken into lines using the given page width as a maximum line length. This line wrapping functionality is used by multi-line text models.

Fonts are represented as instances of the abstract SyFontType interface. The jsycamore package provides implementations that are backed by standard Java AWT fonts, but any font system that can provide the information required by the SyFontType interface could theoretically be used.

3.2.4. Font Services

Font instances are obtained by providing an immutable font description to a font directory service represented by the SyFontDirectoryServiceType interface. A font directory service aggregates font services, represented by the SyFontServiceType interface, typically by loading instances of these services from ServiceLoader.

Applications are required to ensure that they include font modules for the fonts they use. There is no support for reading fonts directly from the host system as this would make applications behave differently on different host systems.

The jsycamore package includes the following optional font modules:

3.2.4.4. Included Fonts

Name | Module | Font
DejaVu Sans | com.io7m.jsycamore.font.dejavu | DejaVu Sans
York | com.io7m.jsycamore.font.york | York Sans

3.2.5. Measured Lines

A measured line is an immutable value containing a single line of text augmented with information derived from an associated font. It contains enough information to answer questions such as "If the user clicks the text at the parent-relative position (x, y), which character within the text did they click on?".

The text location information returned by measured line queries includes information not limited to the character at the given location, whether the location is at the leading edge of a character, the index of the character within the given line, and a bounding box for use in rendering a caret.

3.2.6. Text Models

3.2.6.1. Overview

A text model is a mutable structure that handles wrapping, editing, and selection operations for text. A text model may either be single-line or multi-line.

3.2.6.2. Multi-Line Model

3.2.6.2.1. Description

A multi-line text model is a mutable structure that maintains a list of text sections, and transforms the text sections into a potentially much larger list of measured lines based upon a given page width value.

3.2.6.2.2. Selection

The work required to implement text selection in a multi-line model is relatively complex. The model must correctly handle forward selection and backward selection, and must do so in the presence of text sections having different text directions within the same model.

In order to reason about text selections, it is necessary to describe the property of logical ordering for characters in text. A character C is considered logically earlier in a given piece of text than a character B if C would be encountered before B in terms of reading order for the text. For example, in the English sentence "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs", the character q is logically earlier than the character z when the sentence is read. Conveniently, this order matches the order in which the characters are actually stored as strings in memory, and the order does not change regardless of the text direction of the language in which the text is written. Accordingly, the logically later property is simply the inverse of the logically earlier property.

The output of the text selection progress is the inclusive lower and inclusive upper bounds of the selection in logical order, and a set of selection region bounding boxes that can be used during rendering to render selection boxes around the relevant text. The selection regions are trivial to create; the selection region for a given line is the union of the bounding boxes of the characters that are selected on that line (taken from the associated font), and the set of regions for all lines spanned by the selection is the set of per-line regions.

Forward selection is the process of the user dragging the mouse across text, starting from an initial position in the text and moving the mouse to a logically later position in the text. For example:

3.2.6.2.2.5. Forward Selection LTR

In the diagram above, the user is performing a forward selection in left-to-right text. The text consists of two measured lines. The dotted arrows represent the mouse dragging directions. The user placed the cursor before the letter q in "quick" and dragged the cursor rightwards and then downwards. This results in a selection that spans the two lines. The selection is a forward selection because the selection progressed in a manner that started from a position that is logically earlier in the text, and progressed to a location that is logically later in the text.

Backward selection is the process of the user dragging the mouse across text, starting from an initial position in the text and moving the mouse to a logically earlier position in the text according to the text direction. For example:

3.2.6.2.2.8. Backward Selection LTR

In the diagram above, the user is performing a backward selection in left-to-right text. The text consists of two measured lines. The dotted arrows represent the mouse dragging directions. The user placed the cursor before the letter t in "the" and dragged the cursor upwards and then leftwards. This results in a selection that spans the two lines. The selection is a backward selection because the selection progressed in a manner that started from a position that is logically later in the text, and progressed to a location that is logically earlier in the text.

For right-to-left text, the situation does not change in that forward selections progress from logically earlier positions to logically later positions, and backward selections progress from logically later positions to logically earlier positions, but the physical direction in which the user drags the selection cursor is reversed. For example:

3.2.6.2.2.11. Forward Selection RTL

In the diagram above, the user is performing a forward selection in right-to-left text. The text consists of two measured lines. The dotted arrows represent the mouse dragging directions. The user placed the cursor before the letter פ in "אנציקלופדיה" and dragged the cursor leftwards and then downwards. This results in a selection that spans the two lines. The selection is a forward selection because the selection progressed in a manner that started from a position that is logically earlier in the text, and progressed to a location that is logically later in the text.

Conversely, for backward selection:

3.2.6.2.2.14. Backward Selection RTL

In the diagram above, the user is performing a backward selection in right-to-left text. The text consists of two measured lines. The dotted arrows represent the mouse dragging directions. The user placed the cursor after the letter ם in "בדפים" and dragged the cursor upwards and then rightwards. This results in a selection that spans the two lines. The selection is a backward selection because the selection progressed in a manner that started from a position that is logically later in the text, and progressed to a location that is logically earlier in the text.

The process of text selection therefore takes the following steps:

3.2.6.2.2.17. Text Selection Steps

When the user first presses the mouse button to start dragging, determine which measured line the cursor is over based on the Y position of the cursor, then ask that line for the text location at the X and Y position of the cursor. The position is recorded as the starting or pivot point for the selection, and all subsequent positions will be considered relative to this pivot point.

When the user drags the mouse, determine which measured line the cursor is over based on the Y position of the cursor, then ask that line for the text location at the X and Y position of the cursor. If the location is logically before the pivot point, then the new position becomes the lower bound of the selection, and the upper bound is set to the pivot point. If the location is logically after the pivot point, then the new position becomes the upper bound of the selection, and the lower bound is set to the pivot point.

During each of the above steps, the lines between the lower and upper bounds of the selection in progress are examined. The lower and upper bounds may span several lines, or may simply both be on the same line. Based on the examined lines, a set of selection regions is generated. The algorithm used differs based on whether the selection is a forward selection or a backward selection. For each selection direction, the algorithm proceeds by case analysis:

3.2.6.2.2.19. Forward Selection Algorithm

For each line K in lines [P .. Q]:

If K > P ∧ K < Q, then we simply need to create a selection region that covers the entirety of K; it's a fully selected line that's between the starting and ending line of the selection.

Otherwise, if K = P, then we need to create a selection region either from the lower bound of the selection to the end of the line, or from the lower bound of the selection to the upper bound of the selection if the upper bound happens to be on the same line.

Otherwise, we must have K = Q ∧ Q ≠ P. We have already created a selection region that involves the lower bound of the selection in the previous step, therefore the only work remaining must be to create a selection region from the start of the line to the upper bound of the selection (which must be on that same line).

For each case in the above algorithm, we create a selection region that's relevant to the text direction of the given line. For example, a region that extends from the "start of the line" in left-to-right text is a region that starts from the leftmost edge of the text area in parent-relative space. Conversely, a region that extends from the "start of the line" in right-to-left text is a region that starts from the rightmost edge of the text area in parent-relative space.

For backward selection, the algorithm is similar:

3.2.6.2.2.22. Backward Selection Algorithm

For each line K in lines [P .. Q]:

If K > P ∧ K < Q, then we simply need to create a selection region that covers the entirety of K; it's a fully selected line that's between the starting and ending line of the selection.

Otherwise, if K = P, then we need to create a selection region either from the upper bound of the selection to the start of the line, or from the upper bound of the selection to the lower bound of the selection if the lower bound happens to be on the same line.

Otherwise, we must have K = Q ∧ Q ≠ P. We have already created a selection region that involves the upper bound of the selection in the previous step, therefore the only work remaining must be to create a selection region from the end of the line to the lower bound of the selection (which must be on that same line).

Following the above algorithm, we can correctly build selection regions that span multiple lines where each line has its own text direction:

3.2.6.2.2.24. Text Selection Example

3.2.6.3. Single-Line Model

3.2.6.3.1. Description

A single-line text model is very simple, and augments a single measured line with the information required for performing text selections.

3.2.6.3.2. Selection

Text selection for single-line models is simply the K = P case for forward and backward multi-line selections. By definition, the upper and lower bounds of selections in single-line models are always on the same line.

Footnotes

1

The reason for the separation of single-line and multi-line models is that the work required for single-line models is drastically simpler than the work required for multi-line models. There is no reason to pay the complexity cost of multi-line models for every single text view if multiple lines are not required.

3.3. Buttons

3.3.1. Description

3.3.2. Semantics

3.3.1. Description

A button is a simple component that triggers a listener when the user clicks on it.

3.3.1.2. Button

Buttons always have exactly one assigned listener. A listener is simply a parameterless function that is evaluated by the button implementation and is expected to perform some kind of side effect. By default, buttons have a listener that does nothing. A listener can be assigned to or removed from the button at any time, and "removing" the listener simply re-assigns a default listener that does nothing when evaluated.

3.3.2. Semantics

Button components implement the given state machine [1]:

3.3.2.2. Button State

Buttons begin in the BUTTON_IDLE state. If the button is inactive, it will stay in the BUTTON_IDLE state regardless of mouse or keyboard events.

Otherwise, assuming that the button is active, if the user moves the mouse cursor over the button, the button transitions to the BUTTON_OVER state. If the user then moves the cursor such that it is no longer over the button, the button transitions back to the BUTTON_IDLE state.

When in the BUTTON_OVER state, if the user presses the primary mouse button, the button transitions to the BUTTON_PRESSED state. If the user moves the mouse cursor such that it is no longer over the button (without releasing the primary mouse button), the button transitions to the BUTTON_PRESSED_NOT_OVER state. Otherwise, if the user leaves the mouse cursor over the button and then releases the primary mouse button, the button transitions to the BUTTON_CLICKED state. The button evaluates the associated listener and then either transitions to the BUTTON_OVER state if the mouse cursor is still over the button, or transitions to the BUTTON_IDLE state if the mouse cursor is no longer over the button.

In the BUTTON_PRESSED_NOT_OVER state, the user can either release the primary mouse button, which returns the button to the BUTTON_IDLE state, or the user can move the cursor such that it is back over the button again, resulting in the button transitioning back to the BUTTON_PRESSED state.

The BUTTON_CLICKED state is the only state in which the listener will be evaluated, and the listener will be evaluated exactly once upon each transition to the BUTTON_CLICKED state.

Footnotes

1 | Buttons are not necessarily implemented in terms of an explicit state machine; this is merely a method of specifying how buttons should behave. References to this footnote: 1