spreadsheet ( was :10000 fields and crash)

[jbv]

Richard Gaskin :

>
>
> That post explained _what_ was acheived, but not _why_ it couldn't be done
> with fewer fields.   Did I miss something obvious?
>
> I'm curious too:  Why not just one field, or at most a different field for
> each column.
>

I tried that option (a different field per column) as a possibility to lower
the number of flds, but actually dropped it as it made a few spreadsheet
features more difficult to implement :
- variable height of rows
- multiple lines content of each cell
- single cell selection

As for the huge saving times I mentioned earlier, I made some progress
on this issue : I discovered that it happens ONLY when all 3000 to 10000
flds have the same rect (which happens when one creates 1 fld and then
use "clone fld 1" in a repeat loop).
But once flds are arranged in rows & cols (have different rect values),
then saving is a snap.
I don't why this happens like that : it seems that when too many controls
have the same rect, MC gets lost, or has to crosscheck everything several
times...

Nevertheless, I choosed the option of creating flds on the fly, and it works
like a charm...
And therefore I was wondering whether enough list members would be
interested in a spreadsheet made with MC (which could be of many uses,
like GUI for a database...) ? If yes, I could put together a library of
scripts
allowing users to produce an Excel clone... Including bussiness graphics
is also a possibility (and why not interactive 3D biz. graphics in openGL
?)...

BTW, I have a question : as for the scripting language for cells, should I
emulate the one implemented in Excel, or would it be better to use
MetaTalk and the "do" command ?

Thanks for any suggestion...

JB