ford@crash.UUCP (06/15/87)
In article <347@sol.ARPA> mcinerny@rochester.UUCP (Michael McInerny) writes: >In article <1219@crash.CTS.COM> ford@crash.CTS.COM (Michael Ditto) writes: >>In article <150@sugar.UUCP> peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter DaSilva) writes: >>>4) A new CON: device that uses a simple-refresh window, keeps track of 24 >>>lines by 80 columns of text, and has scroll bars to pan a full size screen... >>This is a good idea.... > >No! I _like_ the current console.device. It's simple, effective, and >flexible. If I want a 700x400 character CON:, I can get it (I won't >be able to read it :-). Please don't limit me to 80x24. I may _want_ I don't think Peter meant to force 80 X 24, he just meant that a screen could have a "logical size" different from the current window size. I would never suggest replacing the console.device with anything less effective than, less useful than, or not compatible with the current one. But I think the idea of scrolling through previous pages of text or extra columns can be put in without losing any functionality of the normal console.device. And the original comment, I think, was primarily to suggest the idea that the console.device could only keep the ascii characters in memory, rather than a whole bitmap. Thus, less memory would be used, simple_refresh would be possible, and you could shrink a window, and then restore it to full size later with all the text re-appearing. But I will say that I prefer smart_refresh because it is so much faster -- I hate how slow things get when workbench windows are open. If a new console handler were done using simple_refresh, it would have to be highly bummed for quick refreshing. -- Michael "Ford" Ditto -=] Ford [=- P.O. Box 1721 ford@crash.CTS.COM Bonita, CA 92002 ford%oz@prep.mit.ai.edu
page@ulowell.UUCP (06/15/87)
>the idea of scrolling through previous pages of text or extra columns can >be put in without losing any functionality of the normal console.device. Saturday night I saw a new hack on one of the services (either PLink or Delphi, don't remember which) that remembers the text on your con: and allows you to scroll it back. The author suggests you use it with conman, but will work without it. I didn't download it, but wanted you to know it's available. >the console.device could only keep the ascii characters in memory, >rather than a whole bitmap. This was slated for the 1.2 release but never made it in. Maybe 1.3 ... ..Bob -- Bob Page, U of Lowell CS Dept. page@ulowell.{uucp,edu,csnet}
peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter DaSilva) (06/17/87)
> But I will say that I prefer smart_refresh because it is so much faster -- I > hate how slow things get when workbench windows are open. If a new console > handler were done using simple_refresh, it would have to be highly bummed for > quick refreshing. The problem is that if you have a bunch of smart-refresh windows on the screen, and do much window manipulation, they each get chopped up into a whole bunch of super-small bitmaps and updating becomes pure agony. Simple refresh is slightly (slightly! If you use a single Text() call for each line of text you output, it's damn fast) slower for the simple case, but its behaviour doesn't degrade nearly as badly.