NetBeans Architecture Answers for Editor Utilities module

General Information

Question (arch-what): What is this project good for?
Answer: Editor Utilities module contains useful utility classes and methods used by other editor related modules.
Question (arch-overall): Describe the overall architecture.
Answer: The module defines EditorUtilitiesAPI.
The present clients are editor/lib and editor/fold modules.
Question (arch-usecases): Describe the main use cases of the new API. Who will use it under what circumstances? What kind of code would typically need to be written to use the module?
Answer:

GapList

The GapList class is a java.util.List implementation similar to java.util.ArrayList but containing a gap in its underlying array. After a first modification at a particular index the subsequent modifications around that index are cheap.
The class is suitable for storage of any elements related to editing such as positions, elements, views etc.

PriorityMutex

The PriorityMutex is a simple mutex implementation allowing to find out that a priority thread (by default Event Dispatch Thread) is waiting to enter the mutex.
It's used e.g. in editor's view hierarchy or in editor fold hierarchy.

GapBranchElement

GapList-based element implementation suitable for line elements and any other branch element types.

Question (arch-time): What are the time estimates of the work?
Answer: The module is continuously developed and improved as necessary.
Question (arch-quality): How will the quality of your code be tested and how are future regressions going to be prevented?
Answer: Unit tests are present to verify proper functionality of the contained classes.
Question (arch-where): Where one can find sources for your module?
Answer:

The sources for the module are in the NetBeans Mercurial repositories.

Project and platform dependencies

Question (dep-nb): What other NetBeans projects and modules does this one depend on?
Answer:

These modules are required in project.xml:

Question (dep-non-nb): What other projects outside NetBeans does this one depend on?
Answer: No other projects.
Question (dep-platform): On which platforms does your module run? Does it run in the same way on each?
Answer: All platforms.
Question (dep-jre): Which version of JRE do you need (1.2, 1.3, 1.4, etc.)?
Answer: JDK1.4 and higher can be used.
Question (dep-jrejdk): Do you require the JDK or is the JRE enough?
Answer: JRE is sufficient.

Deployment

Question (deploy-jar): Do you deploy just module JAR file(s) or other files as well?
Answer: No additional files.
Question (deploy-nbm): Can you deploy an NBM via the Update Center?
Answer: Yes.
Question (deploy-shared): Do you need to be installed in the shared location only, or in the user directory only, or can your module be installed anywhere?
Answer: Anywhere.
Question (deploy-packages): Are packages of your module made inaccessible by not declaring them public?
Answer: Yes, where appropriate.
Question (deploy-dependencies): What do other modules need to do to declare a dependency on this one, in addition to or instead of the normal module dependency declaration (e.g. tokens to require)?
Answer: Nothing.

Compatibility with environment

Question (compat-i18n): Is your module correctly internationalized?
Answer: Yes.
Question (compat-standards): Does the module implement or define any standards? Is the implementation exact or does it deviate somehow?
Answer: Compatible with standards.
Question (compat-version): Can your module coexist with earlier and future versions of itself? Can you correctly read all old settings? Will future versions be able to read your current settings? Can you read or politely ignore settings stored by a future version?
Answer: Yes.
Question (compat-deprecation): How the introduction of your project influences functionality provided by previous version of the product?
Answer:

XXX no answer for compat-deprecation

Access to resources

Question (resources-file): Does your module use java.io.File directly?
Answer: No.
Question (resources-layer): Does your module provide own layer? Does it create any files or folders in it? What it is trying to communicate by that and with which components?
Answer: No.
Question (resources-read): Does your module read any resources from layers? For what purpose?
Answer: No.
Question (resources-mask): Does your module mask/hide/override any resources provided by other modules in their layers?
Answer: No.
Question (resources-preferences): Does your module uses preferences via Preferences API? Does your module use NbPreferences or or regular JDK Preferences ? Does it read, write or both ? Does it share preferences with other modules ? If so, then why ?
Answer:

XXX no answer for resources-preferences

Lookup of components

Question (lookup-lookup): Does your module use org.openide.util.Lookup or any similar technology to find any components to communicate with? Which ones?
Answer: No
Question (lookup-register): Do you register anything into lookup for other code to find?
Answer: No.
Question (lookup-remove): Do you remove entries of other modules from lookup?
Answer: No.

Execution Environment

Question (exec-property): Is execution of your code influenced by any environment or Java system (System.getProperty) property? On a similar note, is there something interesting that you pass to java.util.logging.Logger? Or do you observe what others log?
Answer: No.
Question (exec-component): Is execution of your code influenced by any (string) property of any of your components?
Answer: No.
Question (exec-ant-tasks): Do you define or register any ant tasks that other can use?
Answer: No.
Question (exec-classloader): Does your code create its own class loader(s)?
Answer: No.
Question (exec-reflection): Does your code use Java Reflection to execute other code?
Answer: No.
Question (exec-privateaccess): Are you aware of any other parts of the system calling some of your methods by reflection?
Answer: No.
Question (exec-process): Do you execute an external process from your module? How do you ensure that the result is the same on different platforms? Do you parse output? Do you depend on result code?
Answer: No.
Question (exec-introspection): Does your module use any kind of runtime type information (instanceof, work with java.lang.Class, etc.)?
Answer: No.
Question (exec-threading): What threading models, if any, does your module adhere to? How the project behaves with respect to threading?
Answer: No special threading models used.
Question (security-policy): Does your functionality require modifications to the standard policy file?
Answer: No.
Question (security-grant): Does your code grant additional rights to some other code?
Answer: No.

Format of files and protocols

Question (format-types): Which protocols and file formats (if any) does your module read or write on disk, or transmit or receive over the network? Do you generate an ant build script? Can it be edited and modified?
Answer: No files read or written to the disk.
Question (format-dnd): Which protocols (if any) does your code understand during Drag & Drop?
Answer: No D&D.
Question (format-clipboard): Which data flavors (if any) does your code read from or insert to the clipboard (by access to clipboard on means calling methods on java.awt.datatransfer.Transferable?
Answer: No clipboard support.

Performance and Scalability

Question (perf-startup): Does your module run any code on startup?
Answer: No.
Question (perf-exit): Does your module run any code on exit?
Answer: No.
Question (perf-scale): Which external criteria influence the performance of your program (size of file in editor, number of files in menu, in source directory, etc.) and how well your code scales?
Answer: No external criteria.
Question (perf-limit): Are there any hard-coded or practical limits in the number or size of elements your code can handle?
Answer: No practical limits.
Question (perf-mem): How much memory does your component consume? Estimate with a relation to the number of windows, etc.
Answer: Mostly utility classes and methods. Sizeof() tests created where necessary.
Question (perf-wakeup): Does any piece of your code wake up periodically and do something even when the system is otherwise idle (no user interaction)?
Answer: No.
Question (perf-progress): Does your module execute any long-running tasks?
Answer: No.
Question (perf-huge_dialogs): Does your module contain any dialogs or wizards with a large number of GUI controls such as combo boxes, lists, trees, or text areas?
Answer: No.
Question (perf-menus): Does your module use dynamically updated context menus, or context-sensitive actions with complicated and slow enablement logic?
Answer: No.
Question (perf-spi): How the performance of the plugged in code will be enforced?
Answer: No plugged code.