Description Missing name Mising name 2006-05-20 21:17:48 EDT

Currently the member sorter orders first by type, optionally by visibility and then by name.  This neglects the meaning of the members, which can sometimes be reasonably deduced.  There should be customisable grouping options such as grouping accessors/mutators and collecting methods together that are declared in the same interface.

For instance, consider the following code:

	interface ITwoWays
	{
		public void accept();
		public void reject();
	}

	public class FruitAudit implements ITwoWays
	{
		public int getApples() {return 1;}
		public void setCherries(boolean b) {}
		public boolean isBananas() {return false;}
		public void accept() {}
		public void setApples(int n) {}
		public void finalize() {}
		public boolean hasCherries() {return true;}
		public void reject() {}
		public void init() {}
		public void setBananas(boolean b) {}
	}

The methods in the FruitAudit class are sorted as follows using the current algorithm:

	accept()
	finalize()
	getApples()
	hasCherries()
	init()
	isBananas()
	reject()
	setApples()
	setBananas()
	setCherries()

It would be clearer to group accessors, mutators and other special methods, and have setup/teardown methods near the top, such as in:

	// Setup/teardown, sorted by execution order
	init()
	finalize()

	// Accessors, sorted by variable
	getApples()
	isBananas()
	hasCherries()

	// Mutators, sorted by variable
	setApples()
	setBananas()
	setCherries()

	// Remaining methods, sorted alphabetically
	accept()
	reject()

or having accessor/mutator pairs, sorted by variable:

	// Setup/teardown
	init()
	finalize()

	// Apples
	getApples()
	setApples()

	// Bananas
	isBananas()
	setBananas()

	// Cherries
	hasCherries()
	setCherries()

	// Remaining methods
	accept()
	reject()

Even with the existing sorting it would be helpful to collect methods by the (alphabetically first) interface in which they are declared when the class directly implements one or more interfaces.  For example:

	// Original and overiding methods
	finalize()
	getApples()
	hasCherries()
	init()
	isBananas()
	setApples()
	setBananas()
	setCherries()

	// Implementation of methods declared in ITwoWays
	accept()
	reject()