Reading a (BIG) text file one line at a time

Kevin Miller kevin at runrev.com
Wed Nov 24 10:18:35 EST 2004


On 23/11/04 3:58 pm, "Richard Gaskin" <ambassador at fourthworld.com> wrote:

> Did you mean #2341?  If so, it needn't be a show-stopper:  while the
> Geometry Manager is a nice convenience it's by no means essential.
> Since long before the GM existed the engine has provided a resizeStack
> message which can be trapped directly to handle your layout needs.  It
> is that message that Rev's GM script itself responds to in order to do
> its stuff.
> 
> While the GM is handy for many layouts, if you have a circumstance it
> doesn't handle gracefully yet I suspect it would take only a few minutes
> to write your own resizeStack handler that will do what you need.  As
> highly generalized code, the GM does a lot of extra work in order to
> provide its conveniences (the script is about 40+k last time I checked),
> so your custom resizeStack handler will likely provide better
> performance as well (though the engine is so fast the difference may not
> be noticeable).

Indeed, this is quite true.  You certainly can write your own handlers and
have complete control over them should you need to do so.  Such a handler
would be capable of dealing with any specialized requirement.  That said,
let me make a few statements about the Geometry Manager that are perhaps not
coming across clearly and really are applicable in the vast majority of
cases.

With the odd exception that would be present with any complex feature, in
version 2.5, the Geometry Manager is a stable and reliable component which
we know to be in use in thousands of stacks.

There is no measurable performance hit for using the Geometry Manager.

It takes a tiny fraction of time to do a layout with the Geometry Manager
that it would take to write a script.  It does not take any math, it
requires only point and click.  I know this because I have watched people
use both tools on numerous occasions.

This is a feature that we do support and will continue to support as a point
and click interface is the easiest way to make this stuff work.

It is possible to control the order in which the Geometry Manager applies
its logic.  It is possible to handle complexities such as changing the
height of the card in another handler or having fold out panes of controls.
There is a Geometry pane in the Card properties inspector along with an
object by object inspector.

There are 3rd party tips and hints available for using this tool.

Only where you get to an extreme level of complexity would it be necessary
or even desirable to write your own script.

I know that old-timers are used to writing scripts and this works great, but
if you are a new Revolution user and want controls to lay out automatically
as a window resizes, the Geometry Manager should be your first port of call.
You're not dependent on it, its not your only option, but it does work very
well and is simple and straightforward for 90% of the layout work you may
need to do.

Kind regards,

Kevin

Kevin Miller ~ kevin at runrev.com ~ http://www.runrev.com/
Runtime Revolution - User-Centric Development Tools



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