Re: TableView in a ScrollPane

[Todd Volkert <tv...@gmail.com>]

One of the UI problems that I see with default sized table view columns is
that it would be disconcerting to the user if the table view's columns were
resizing dynamically.  Imagine if your rich email client resized its column
when a new email came in with a large subject.  We could provide an API way
to either (a) get the default width of a column [then you could set the
column width to that width], or (b) size a column to its default.  With
either option, the skin could hook into the API upon double click if and
when we add that feature, but you could also call the API to size the
columns when you set up and populate the table.  Thoughts?
-T

On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 8:01 PM, Scott Lanham <li...@sael.com.au> wrote:

> One of the problems I have always had with creating UI's has been dealing
> with
> variations in font sizes across different systems. Best practice for me is
> if I
> can write a UI without specifying a single dimension in pixels. So any
> feature
> that can give automatic or relative sizes is a very good thing :-)
>
> On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:49:24 pm Todd Volkert wrote:
> > > Oh and it would be a very cool thing if the TableView could support
> > >
> > >> automatic
> > >> widths :-)
> > >
> > > By "automatic", do you mean "size to fit"? In other words, make the
> > > column width the max. width of all the cells in a particular column?
> > >
> > > If so, we don't currently support that. We could conceivably do so by
> > > supporting a value of -1 for column width (like TablePane columns), but
> > > we didn't think there was a strong use case for that. TablePanes
> > > generally have a small number of rows, so calculating this width
> doesn't
> > > impose a performance penalty. However, TableViews are intended to
> display
> > > a large number of rows and it could be costly to determine this value.
> > >
> > > On the other hand, if you know you are only going to have a small
> number
> > > of rows in your TableView, it might be a useful feature. Please feel
> free
> > > to submit a feature request for this (in JIRA).
> >
> > There's also been talk a long time ago about adding the ability for
> > the user to double-click in between column headers to size the column
> > to fit.  This wouldn't impose a big performance penalty because it
> > would be a one-time hit, as opposed to something that were calculated
> > every time the
> > TableView were asked for its preferred size.  Would this feature meet
> your
> > needs here?
> >
> > > Greg
>
>

Re: TableView in a ScrollPane

[Scott Lanham <li...@sael.com.au>]

If I was to have a  list of emails in a TableView I would want the date column 
to automatically size but the subject to take a relative amount of the 
remaining space. If the user did double click on the column then it would be 
nice to define how the column was resize based on information from the API.

On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:13:38 pm Todd Volkert wrote:
> One of the UI problems that I see with default sized table view columns is
> that it would be disconcerting to the user if the table view's columns were
> resizing dynamically.  Imagine if your rich email client resized its column
> when a new email came in with a large subject.  We could provide an API way
> to either (a) get the default width of a column [then you could set the
> column width to that width], or (b) size a column to its default.  With
> either option, the skin could hook into the API upon double click if and
> when we add that feature, but you could also call the API to size the
> columns when you set up and populate the table.  Thoughts?
> -T
>
> On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 8:01 PM, Scott Lanham <li...@sael.com.au> wrote:
> > One of the problems I have always had with creating UI's has been dealing
> > with
> > variations in font sizes across different systems. Best practice for me
> > is if I
> > can write a UI without specifying a single dimension in pixels. So any
> > feature
> > that can give automatic or relative sizes is a very good thing :-)
> >
> > On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 12:49:24 pm Todd Volkert wrote:
> > > > Oh and it would be a very cool thing if the TableView could support
> > > >
> > > >> automatic
> > > >> widths :-)
> > > >
> > > > By "automatic", do you mean "size to fit"? In other words, make the
> > > > column width the max. width of all the cells in a particular column?
> > > >
> > > > If so, we don't currently support that. We could conceivably do so by
> > > > supporting a value of -1 for column width (like TablePane columns),
> > > > but we didn't think there was a strong use case for that. TablePanes
> > > > generally have a small number of rows, so calculating this width
> >
> > doesn't
> >
> > > > impose a performance penalty. However, TableViews are intended to
> >
> > display
> >
> > > > a large number of rows and it could be costly to determine this
> > > > value.
> > > >
> > > > On the other hand, if you know you are only going to have a small
> >
> > number
> >
> > > > of rows in your TableView, it might be a useful feature. Please feel
> >
> > free
> >
> > > > to submit a feature request for this (in JIRA).
> > >
> > > There's also been talk a long time ago about adding the ability for
> > > the user to double-click in between column headers to size the column
> > > to fit.  This wouldn't impose a big performance penalty because it
> > > would be a one-time hit, as opposed to something that were calculated
> > > every time the
> > > TableView were asked for its preferred size.  Would this feature meet
> >
> > your
> >
> > > needs here?
> > >
> > > > Greg