Apologies to anyone if I'm asking a question that's already been asked before. I've been trying to search through the archives, but not having much luck.
I am relatively new to both Batik and Eclipse. I recently installed Eclipse to try to use Batik. I am also a beginner-level Java programmer. Batik's the first 3rd party library I've tried to use, so I also have some theoretical questions about the best way to use Batik. Now, I am able to add the Batik .jar libraries to Eclipse, make a test program, and get it to compile. But if I try to use the source files (all the files under the "sources/" folder) instead to compile, I cannot because there're at least several other libraries for which I'm missing the source code. Are the source files purely for reference only? They are not supposed to be used for compiling? Or is there something I'm doing wrongly? How are most people using Batik? This also brings me to my next question. When working with a library as large as Batik, is it generally better to edit the source files directly and then compile them, or is it the preferred way to extend existing classes? I ask because I am running into situations where I want to add features to a class that might be used by many other classes, but I don't want to go through and extend all those other classes to make sure that they use my modified class instead. Since that might sound a bit confusing, let me put forward a theoretical example: Suppose there is a class Graph, which uses a class Rectangle, which uses a class Edge. The class Graph also has access to the Edge class to make lines. Now, let's say I made a new class, called MyEdge, which extends class Edge. I want both Graph and Rectangle to use this new class instead. Is there a way to do it without having to make new classes called MyGraph and MyRectangle to reference the new class? Sorry if my question might not be really appropriate, but I'm just wondering since I've been looking at the JSVCanvas class in Batik, and as right now I cannot seem to get the source files to compile and am instead relying on the .jar library files, I'm trying to think of how I could extend classes used by that class without having to extend everything in between. If there's also another resource to which I could turn that might better answer this question, please let me know. Thanks in advance for your time. Sincerely, Elvena
