I'm wondering, and other people wonder too why even use private
functions in components in flex? How about protected instead? When a
developer is programming these UIComponents, I know it's hard to
understand how your component might be used. But, let's take an
example of the List component.
Inside List there's a function:
protected function initiateDataChangeEffect(unscaledWidth:Number,
unscaledHeight:Number)
The list animations should have been checked against visibleData in
this method, which would prevent animations to occur on items not in
view. Why was this done like this anyway, speed for a release? Who
cares, I need to change it.
In fact, Alex H maybe, or somebody at Adobe commented in the code:
// as optimization, we might get targets from visibleData
// if we know that nothing else has changed.
// otherwise, rerender using our preserved collection view
// store original collection and iterator so we can
// return to using it after the effect has finished
So here's something we all go through, I want to easily override this
method, but it calls other private methods inside List that I have no
access to override. Developer friendly friends, you are making the
framework for the community, please think about opening up the
internals of the framework. I'm no fan of underclassing, or
rebuilding an entire component to change 3 or 4 methods. I think all
of the components should move to an easier way to override than
currently. Let's get rid of private on all methods and use protected,
at least there's some protection with protected and then our lives
will be easier.
Also, mx_internal, it seems like a hack, to me. Doesn't seem to me to
follow any sort of guideline to follow? What's the purpose of that
namespace, other than to let me know that these methods may go away.
Who cares, I need to access them anyway, especially in the text
components, since they don't measure properly when nested in complex
layouts.
Will there be any discussions on framework discussions at Adobe Max?
Thanks,
Patrick
