Description Leif Nelson 2002-09-17 14:58:10 EDT

Add support in the Java Browsing Perspective for organizing methods/fields 
using the @category (or @cat - whichever is selected) tag described here: 

http://java.sun.com/j2se/javadoc/proposed-tags.html
and here:
http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/bugParade/bugs/4085608.html

If the Java Browsing Perspective (or any java-based perspective for that 
matter) had a new view called "category" or some such that could be placed 
between the "types" view and the "members" view, I believe it would be very 
convenient.  This category view would display the list of all the 
@cat/@category values that were provided in the entire .java file.  When one of 
these categories was selected, this would "filter" the members view to only 
show members that declared themselves with the selected category in their 
javadoc entry.

This is the EXACT same behavior as protocols in most Smalltalk development 
environments.  Examples of possible categories are provided at the Sun 
enhancement request for @category in the comments (url provided above).

copied from Sun enhancement request:
======
Here are a few examples of typical protocols we used to 
use in Smalltalk, along with a description of the kinds of methods that 
would be assigned to the protocol:

 "accessing" - getter and setter methods

 "converting" - methods that convert the object to another 
type (e.g., toInteger, toDate, toPolygon)

 "calculating" - methods that are about computation (e.g., 
calculateOrderTotal, calculateAverageDuration)

 "initializing" - methods that do initialization

 "adding/removing" - methods that add to or remove from a 
collection maintained by an object (e.g., addCustomer, 
removeOrder)

 "testing" - methods that query the state of the object 
(e.g., isConfirmed, isDirty, includesCustomer)

 "actions" - methods that command an object to do something 
(e.g., turnRight, closeConnection)

In addition to assisting in organizing Javadocs, having 
support for a @category or @protocol tag might encourage 
some vendors with Java code browsers to add by-category 
filtering of methods.  The closer we can get to a Smalltalk 
code browser, the more productive we will all be (my $0.02).
========

This would make it VERY easy to organize the methods/fields on classes that 
have MANY, MANY methods into logical groupings.  Also, since it follows along 
with upcoming java standards would be a good choice for support, in my opinion.

Thanks!