JavaFX TextAlignment Gotcha

Here is a minimal test case illustrating how exasperating the default JavaFX Text node can be, especially when aligning text.

You’d be surprised to note that both pieces of text below are aligned using TextAlignment.CENTER.

import javafx.scene.text.*;
import javafx.scene.layout.*;

VBox
{
    translateY:10
    content:
    [
    Text {
        textAlignment:TextAlignment.CENTER
        content: "A New World"
    }
    ,
    Text {
        textAlignment:TextAlignment.CENTER
        content: "A Mighty PubnwithnAbsolutely No Bitter Beer"
    }
    ]
}

Apparently, the state of the art work-around is to calculate the mid-point using myTextNode.boundsInLocal.width, and then position using translateX.

Not good enough, Sun. Not good enough.

Here’s the worked around code

import javafx.scene.*;
import javafx.scene.text.*;
import javafx.scene.layout.*;

var scene:Scene;
scene=Scene
{
    content:
    {
        VBox
        {
            translateY:10
            content:
            [
            Text {
                id: "label1"
                translateX: bind (scene.width-scene.lookup("label1").boundsInLocal.width)/2
                textAlignment:TextAlignment.CENTER
                content: "A New World"
            },
            Text {
                id: "label2"
                translateX: bind (scene.width-scene.lookup("label2").boundsInLocal.width)/2
                textAlignment:TextAlignment.CENTER
                content: "A Mighty PubnwithnAbsolutely No Bitter Beer"
            },
            ]
        }
    }
}