What happend to DefaultCategoryDataset

[Guido Laures]

Hi,

I'm not very pleased with the user-unfriendly changes in JFreeCharts 0.9.5.,
Why isn't it possible to create a DefaultCategoryDataset with the category/value sets anymore? Why do I have to handle with this stupid Comparables everywhere. Code relying on old versions (like Cewolf) must be changed massivly now because of the changes in 0.9.5.
Was this really necessary?

Regards,
Guido

[David Gilbert]

Hi Guido,

I made this change because I've never been completely happy with the CategoryDataset interface indexing series using an int and categories using keys. The dataset describes a table of values, and it makes sense to me that the rows and columns are indexed in the same way.

I use Comparable for the key values because it makes it easy to check key equality (to ensure there are no duplicates) and to order keys if that is required. The String class implements Comparable, so this particular change hasn't caused much disruption in my code, it sounds like it is causing you more trouble.

I know this change causes more work for people than probably any other API change in JFreeChart so far. But I'm working towards the goal of releasing a version 1.0.0 that has a clean, easy-to-use API. The new CategoryDataset is, in my opinion, a step towards that goal.

Regards,

Dave Gilbert

[Guido Laures]

Hi David,

thanks for your reply.
I understand your changes and I'm looking forward to 1.0 (Cewolf 1.0 might be released simultaneously).
Maybe the JavaDoc could be somewhat more expressive?

Regards and keep on with the good work!
Guido