From 7a5101360a86bc0d7d28e7a26f460fcea5f80dea Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Lephenixnoir Date: Wed, 11 Sep 2024 13:21:03 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] add notes about keyboard focus system --- doc/scene.md | 105 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 104 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/doc/scene.md b/doc/scene.md index cd93db0..bb958be 100644 --- a/doc/scene.md +++ b/doc/scene.md @@ -1,3 +1,106 @@ -# JustUI: Scenes and events +# JustUI: Scenes, events and keyboard focus + +## Introduction + +The _scene_ in JustUI is the component sitting at the root of the widget hierarchy. It handles all the dynamic aspects of the UI, including distributing/propagating events and managing keyboard focus among the widgets. + +Ideas... + +New keyboard focus system. +1. Principle and conforming states + a. Widgets have a focus policy of FOCUS_ACCEPT, FOCUS_SCOPE or FOCUS_REJECT, + and two status flags FOCUSED and ACTIVE_FOCUSED whose valid combinations + describe 3 focus levels: *no focus* (F=0), *inactive focus* (F=1, AF=0), + and *active focus* (F=1, AF=1). + b. Each focus scope defines a region consisting of its subtree but excluding + itself and any children of other focus scopes. Up to one widget of policy + FOCUS_ACCEPT or FOCUS_SCOPE in the region may have its FOCUSED flag set, + called the *focus target* of the scope. The ACTIVE_FOCUSED flag of the + target is equal to the scope's. + c. Every focus scope fs induces a *focus chain* fc(fs), where + fc(w) = [] if w is FOCUS_ACCEPT or w is FOCUS_SCOPE with no target; + fc(w) = fc(target) + [target] if w is a scope with the named target. + Note that as a result of 1.b all elements of the chain have their FOCUSED + flag set and their ACTIVE_FOCUSED flags equal to that of fs. + d. jscene is a focus scope defined to have its ACTIVE_FOCUSED always set, + the only such widget that doesn't inherit this flag from a scope parent. + As such, the ACTIVE_FOCUSED flag identifies the focus chain of the scene. + jscene offers keyboard events to its focus chain, propagating rejected + events in list order. + X. The first (deepest) widget in the scene's focus chain is said to have + *strong focus*. Other widgets this chain are said to have *weak focus*. + -> TODO: Strong/weak focus is an informal substate of active focus and + may not be kept in the future. +2. Operations + a. The core operation is a changing the target of a scope, which can be + initiated by any widget in the region through a widget-context call. The + consequences of this operation are as follow: + - The old target, if any, loses its FOCUSED and ACTIVE_FOCUSED flags. If + it's a scope and it had active focus, all widgets in its focus chain + also lose active focus. + - The new target, if any, gets its FOCUSED flag and the scope's value for + the ACTIVE_FOCUSED flag. If it's a focus scope and it gets active + focus, then its focus chain also gets active focus. + All widgets affected receive a FOCUS_CHANGED event and the scope itself + receives a FOCUS_TARGET_CHANGED event. + b. There is a widget-scene call to give a widget active focus. If the widget + has policy FOCUS_ACCEPT or FOCUS_SCOPE, this call walks up the scope + chain and assigns new targets until it reaches the scene. If the widget + has policy FOCUS_NONE, this call just removes the surrounding scope's + target. + X. There is a widget-context call to relinquish one's own focus within the + parent scope. This is intended to differ from 2.b in that scopes might + implement special logic for moving focus to a nearby widget. + -> TODO: Left unresolved for later +3. Key-listener pattern + a. The operations described in 2.a and 2.b allow a "key-listener" pattern + where a widget "klw" (not the scene) receives keyboard events from its + potentially-focused descendants (i.e. inserts itself in the focus chain) + without impacting the focus mechanics of its surrounding scope "ssw". + b. The pattern consists of making klw a focus scope, and whenever it + receives a FOCUS_TARGET_CHANGED event that assigns a target, make klw + grab focus within ssw. This way, with regards to ssw, when focus moves: + - From within klw to within klw: + the grab is a no-op: OK. + - From within klw to outside it: + outside widget gets focus within ssw and klw does nothing: OK. + - From outside klw to within it: + inside widget gets focus in klw, klw gets focus in ssw: OK. + - From outside klw to outside it: + normal retargeting within ssw. + X. Should this be a built-in behavior? + +4. Behavior of built-in widgets + a. `jfileselect`, `jinput`, `jlist` have policy FOCUS_ACCEPT + b. `jscene` has policy FOCUS_SCOPE + TODO: What about jframe? + c. `jfkeys` has policy `FOCUS_REJECT` and must be given events manually + d. Widgets with a stack layout will try and give focus (within their + surrounding scope) to the current element. If the element is complex, it + should be a focus scope. Similarly, widgets with invisible children will + move focus around to their direct children as needed to make sure focus + remains on a visible child. + +5. Implementation + a. Events are `FOCUS_CHANGED` when own FOCUSED and ACTIVE_FOCUSED flags have + changed, and `FOCUS_TARGET_CHANGED` for scopes when the target changes. + +NOTES: +- Focus events don't propagate but are replicated, which adds some complexity +- Focus scopes could have background focus for jfkeys (left for later). Hard + part is this isn't specified by jfkeys. + Could tell users to add this to their main loop, or follow gscreen: + jevent e = jscene_run(); + if(jwidget_event(fkeys, e)) continue; +- Is there any sensible definition to "relinquishing" focus? In gintctl if e.g. + an jinput validates we want to take its focus away and put it back somewhere + sensible (i.e. the gscreen, not NULL, otherwise we don't have F-keys anymore) +- Some functions from should go to +- Functions from that require context or operate on the whole tree + should **really** be identified clearly. Everything by default should just + treat the widget as a box in a void. + -> Previously this was in jscene. Why not keep it that way? + +## Keyboard focus and event propagation TODO.