Codebase refactoring

[xavier-figueroa]

I've reviewing the code and I have identified a few opportunities to improve the code, I already have created some PR and I would like to continue working on this. Some of the things that can be improved are:

• Make it work with gradle 8.X
• Fix typos
• Remove method calls marked for removal
• Update javadoc: remove params that no longer exists, fix syntax, etc
• Remove commented-out code
• Remove unused code
• Make use of java 8 syntax across the project
  • replace anonymous classes with lambas
  • collapse identical catch clauses
  • dymond operators
  • parametrized classes when possible
  • etc

I have noticed that freeplane has a Discussion section to propose this kind of contributions but that is not enabled for shtml. Should I post this info there? @dpolivaev . Could you please advise?

[dpolivaev]

Thank you for your interest and contributions.
I have just merged or commented on your pull requests.

shtml is pretty old component and I am changing it only when it is needed, mostly to fix bugs.
If I wrote it from very beginning I would not have any comments or javadoc at all because keeping them up to date requies extra effort and I do not think that people really want to read it.

I don't read comments or javadoc at all myself, I read the code as the ultimate source of truth.

I do not think that opening discussions on this project makes sense because I do not think that shtml has its own community, and discussions are usually used for communication with and between community members. So I think that at the moment you and me can communicate using issues and pull requests.

I am curious to know why you are interested in improving shtml.

Generally, its code is quite far from being clean, but I am afraid that reworking it would not be rewarded because I do not think that many people would start contributing.

Best regards.

[dpolivaev]

By the way, because Freeplane and shtml are my spare time projects, I usually answer only on weekends and fixing bugs usually has higher priority. So don't be surprised.

[xavier-figueroa]

First of all, Im a Freeplane user :)
Regarding comments and javadocs I agree, usually they don't add any value. I can do a PR either keeping them up to date (I already have a draft of it) or removing them.

Regarding my interest well, I've always been interested to contribute to an open source project, I have had some free time lately and tried to contribute to a big/active projects but it has been a bit hard to get response so I figured to start with something smaller and even better if I'm using it.
Also, I'm studding to get a java certification and coding is much better than just reading :), so I'm not that much interested whether is rewarded or not

[dpolivaev]

I'm not that much interested whether is rewarded or not

I do not mean any financial rewards, I am not getting money for Freeplane myself.
I mean the impact of time and effort we both spend.

I think we could have an online call to try to find a topic where your efforts could probably make a higher impact, although I appreciate your current contributions and I think they make sense.

[dpolivaev]

You can write me an email to dimitry (at) freeplane (dot) org so that we can find the time for a call.

[dpolivaev]

Hey @xavier-figueroa, I have seen a nice picture I wanted to share with you because it is exactly what you do.
It is called "Refactoring priority premise" and describes which order of refactorings the author finds the best.

[xavier-figueroa]

That's nice, thanks for sharing. is that part of a book/article? I'd like to learn more about it