Design Question for a Custom Field

Question

I am designing a custom Field, GridField, that creates a grid of n X m cells. Each column has a width, each row has a height, and each cell cell can have a color, border, text, and font. My question deals with how to treat the borders of the cell. It is a design trade off question, so I am interested in your viewpoint as a developer and how you would expect this GridField to work.
Say I need a 3 X 3 grid with the columns 30 pixels wide and rows 20 pixels tall. The entire field is 60 pixels X 90 pixels in size. Now, if I add a vertical border on the sides and in between each column and that border has a width - say 2 pixels. What type of behavior would you expect from this Field:
Option A. The cell remains 20 pixels X 30 pixels in size. The entire Field grows in size by the border width - so with three columns and a 2 pixel border, the GridField is now 90 + 4 borders X 2 pixels = 98 pixels wide. If I add a similar horizontal border, then the GridField is now 60 pixels + 8 pixels for the border = 68 pixels tall.
Option B. Each cell is reduced in size by the border - so now the cells are 18 pixels tall and 28 pixels wide.
These options become more interesting when you consider putting a border around just one cell in the grid. Are the border widths added to all the cells in the row and column of this cell, or are the border widths subtracted from the one cell that has the borders?
Thanks for your thought!
Mark
P.S. Why am I doing this? I could accomplish the same thing using a TableLayoutManager and LabelFields. However, if I have a 10 X 10 grid, that means I have to create 100 LabelFields. With this approach, I only create one object and a more "robust" paint method. I believe I am making a smaller widget to accomplish the same task.
P.P.S. I am currently using this GridField in a Blackberry development project, but it also has application in any MIDP project.

Answer 1

I am designing a custom Field, GridField, that creates a grid of n X m cells. Each column has a width, each row has a height, and each cell cell can have a color, border, text, and font. My question deals with how to treat the borders of the cell. It is a design trade off question, so I am interested in your viewpoint as a developer and how you would expect this GridField to work.
Say I need a 3 X 3 grid with the columns 30 pixels wide and rows 20 pixels tall. The entire field is 60 pixels X 90 pixels in size. Now, if I add a vertical border on the sides and in between each column and that border has a width - say 2 pixels. What type of behavior would you expect from this Field:
Option A. The cell remains 20 pixels X 30 pixels in size. The entire Field grows in size by the border width - so with three columns and a 2 pixel border, the GridField is now 90 + 4 borders X 2 pixels = 98 pixels wide. If I add a similar horizontal border, then the GridField is now 60 pixels + 8 pixels for the border = 68 pixels tall.
Option B. Each cell is reduced in size by the border - so now the cells are 18 pixels tall and 28 pixels wide.
These options become more interesting when you consider putting a border around just one cell in the grid. Are the border widths added to all the cells in the row and column of this cell, or are the border widths subtracted from the one cell that has the borders?
Thanks for your thought!
Mark
P.S. Why am I doing this? I could accomplish the same thing using a TableLayoutManager and LabelFields. However, if I have a 10 X 10 grid, that means I have to create 100 LabelFields. With this approach, I only create one object and a more "robust" paint method. I believe I am making a smaller widget to accomplish the same task.
P.P.S. I am currently using this GridField in a Blackberry development project, but it also has application in any MIDP project.