chore: comment for why nativeTextViewProtected (NativeScript#8886)

NathanaelA · web-flow · commit 29da0fb5f759 · 2020-09-23T16:01:24.000-07:00
Explains for future generations why this getter exists.  &#128512;
diff --git a/packages/core/ui/text-base/text-base-common.ts b/packages/core/ui/text-base/text-base-common.ts
@@ -26,6 +26,26 @@ export abstract class TextBaseCommon extends View implements TextBaseDefinition
 	public text: string;
 	public formattedText: FormattedString;
 
+	/***
+	* In the NativeScript Core; by default the nativeTextViewProtected points to the same value as nativeViewProtected.   
+	* At this point no internal NS components need this indirection functionality.
+	* This indirection is used to allow support usage by third party components so they don't have to duplicate functionality.
+	*
+	* A third party component can just override the `nativeTextViewProtected` getter and return a different internal view and that view would be 
+	* what all TextView/TextInput class features would be applied to.
+	* 
+	* A example is the Android MaterialDesign TextInput class, it has a wrapper view of a TextInputLayout
+	*    https://developer.android.com/reference/com/google/android/material/textfield/TextInputLayout
+	* which wraps the actual TextInput.  This wrapper layout (TextInputLayout) must be assigned to the nativeViewProtected as the entire
+	* NS Core uses nativeViewProtected for everything related to layout, so that it can be measured, added to the parent view as a child, ect.   
+	*
+	* However, its internal view would be the actual TextView/TextInput and to allow that sub-view to have the normal TextView/TextInput
+	* class features, which we expose and to allow them to work on it, the internal TextView/TextInput is what the needs to have the class values applied to it.
+	*
+	* So all code that works on what is expected to be a TextView/TextInput should use `nativeTextViewProtected` so that any third party 
+	* components that need to have two separate components can work properly without them having to duplicate all the TextBase (and decendants) functionality
+	* by just overriding the nativeTextViewProtected getter.
+	**/
 	get nativeTextViewProtected() {
 		return this.nativeViewProtected;
 	}
