Before I REALbug these as suggestions, I wanted to see if anyone else thinks
these would be useful (or has perhaps already submitted them). These mainly
apply to non-control classes...i.e., those for which properties can be
displayed in the IDE's Properties window, although some could also apply to
other user-defined classes.
(1) If a Property is marked as 'Private' and 'Show in Properties Window', it
should appear in the IDE as a 'read-only' property. I.e., you can see that
the property exists, but you can't change it in the Properties window. Yes,
I can just leave 'Show..." unchecked, but sometimes it's nice to have a
reminder that a property exists, even though you may only be able to change
it via code (perhaps with a Set... method).
(2) Default values for properties. Such default values would be shown in the
Properties window, at least for non-control classes. Assigning a default
value would be completely optional.
(3) Mainly for properties that use numeric values, the ability to assign an
allowable range of values. Also optional, and not used/ignored if not
assigned. If an attempt is made to set a value outside of the given range it
would generate an error--OutOfBoundsException if via code, or if trying to
set an illegal value in the Properties window, a dialog to explain the
allowable values.
Yes, #2 and #3 can be done (for the most part) via code, but when the
properties are displayed in the Properties window, there is no indication of
what the end result will be. It would also mean that you (the programmer)
wouldn't have to write as much code (I'm lazy, as I've admitted before).
George
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George Clark - gaclark at sprynet dot com
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