child z ordering

[James Dunsdon]

Hi,

I'm wondering if there is any consideration towards being able to modify 
child Z ordering. Currently it only seems based on add order. There are 
a few use cases where slight overlapping might be desired in which case 
z ordering should be independently controllable of layout order. 
toFront(), toBack() only seem to work with Groups. I've given a code 
example of a use case below. My current workaround is to use rotations 
to created the desired effect.


import javafx.application.Application;
import javafx.geometry.Pos;
import javafx.scene.Node;
import javafx.scene.Parent;
import javafx.scene.Scene;
import javafx.scene.layout.HBox;
import javafx.scene.layout.VBox;
import javafx.scene.paint.Color;
import javafx.scene.shape.Circle;
import javafx.scene.shape.Rectangle;
import javafx.stage.Stage;

public class Main extends Application {

    @Override
    public void start(Stage primaryStage) throws Exception{
        Parent root = new VBox(createDefaultBehavior(), 
createPreferredBehavior());
        primaryStage.setTitle("Hello World");
        primaryStage.setScene(new Scene(root, 300, 275));
        primaryStage.show();
    }

    private Node createDefaultBehavior(){
        HBox box = new HBox(createCircle(), createRectangle());
        box.setAlignment(Pos.CENTER_LEFT);
        box.setSpacing(-10);
        return box;
    }

    /*
    in this case since we are using symmetric shapes the node rotations 
are unnecessary,
    however they would be required for most content
     */
    private Node createPreferredBehavior(){
        Node circle = createCircle();
        circle.setRotate(-180);
        Node rectangle = createRectangle();
        rectangle.setRotate(-180);
        HBox box = new HBox(rectangle, circle);
        box.setAlignment(Pos.CENTER_RIGHT);
        box.setRotate(180);
        box.setSpacing(-10);
        return box;
    }

    private Node createCircle(){
        Circle circle = new Circle(30, Color.RED);
        circle.setStroke(Color.GOLDENROD);
        circle.setStrokeWidth(4.0);
        return circle;
    }

    private Node createRectangle(){
        Rectangle rectangle = new Rectangle(100, 40, Color.GREEN);
        rectangle.setStroke(Color.GOLDENROD);
        rectangle.setStrokeWidth(4.0);
        return rectangle;
    }


    public static void main(String[] args) {
        launch(args);
    }
}


Thanks,

James Dunsdon

(nervous first time poster)