Table fields... oh boy.

[Richard Gaskin]

Troy Rollins wrote:
...
> To me, data grids are a pretty critical functionality....

For me too, but I think you're talking about a very specific 
implementation of a data grid, perhaps the type one sees in spreadsheets 
or the type supported by HTML.

The built-in multi-column field has been doing me just fine for years. 
You can put up to 4GB of tab-delimited data into it and get instant 
results by setting the tabStops property. It supports most of the 
behaviors commonly associated with database display, including 
properties for selecting either single or multiple lines, and even 
discontiguous selection.

...
 > It creates interface bottlenecks
> where entire multi-field cards are used instead of a single multi-column 
> line in a grid. This is not a workable solution in many cases, since it 
> doesn't support relational sorting, etc.

What is "relational sorting"?

The built-in sort command will do well with the built-in multi-column 
list object, with the only caeat being that no single line of text can 
be longer than 64k (which is probably wider than would be practical for 
most common uses anyway).

> It isn't an actual OS native grid

Where did you get the impression any OS provides a data grid control?

If there's a native data grid control in OS X or XP it's very new; for 
the previous 20 years everyone rolled their own.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
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  Rev tools and more:  http://www.fourthworld.com/rev