[comp.sys.mac.hypercard] Moving between fields

anderst@bio.embnet.se (03/29/91)

Moving between fields

I'm trying to use HC2.0 to build a simple spreadsheet program. My problem
is that moving between fields (using the tabKey) is a surprisingly slow
process. Does anyone know the reason for this and is there a way to get
rid of this bottleneck?

							Time consumer

fvernon@cudnvr.denver.colorado.edu (Frank Vernon) (04/01/91)

In message: <1991Mar29.134059.100@bio.embnet.se>
anderst@bio.embnet.se writes:

>Moving between fields
>
>I'm trying to use HC2.0 to build a simple spreadsheet program. My problem
>is that moving between fields (using the tabKey) is a surprisingly slow
>process. Does anyone know the reason for this and is there a way to get
>rid of this bottleneck?

Moving between fields in HyperCard 2.0 is quite slow. It is especially slow if
you have a large number of fields on a background. To improve this performance,
you have two basic options

1) Your best shot is to try to reduce the number of fields on your background.

2) Rumor has it that resizing the System Heap will help with this problem. I
have not tried this myself, but it came from a good source (Kevin Calhoun @
Apple) so I tend to trust it. I am sure however that this gain would be marginal
at best.

Frank Vernon
Nine to Five Software
(303) 443-9713

John_Miller@mindlink.UUCP (John Miller) (04/02/91)

In message <1991Apr1.092201.80@cudnvr.denver.colorado.edu>,
      fvernon@cudnvr.denver.colorado.edu (Frank Vernon) writes

> In message: <1991Mar29.134059.100@bio.embnet.se>
> anderst@bio.embnet.se writes:

>>Moving between fields
>>
>>I'm trying to use HC2.0 to build a simple spreadsheet program. My
>> problem is that moving between fields (using the tabKey) is a
>> surprisingly slow process. Does anyone know the reason for this
>> and is there a way to get rid of this bottleneck?

> Moving between fields in HyperCard 2.0 is quite slow. It is
> especially slow if you have a large number of fields on a
> background. To improve this performance, you have two
> basic options

A third option is to use my FastTab XCMD which appeared a few
days ago on comp.binaries.mac.  FastTab is mostly equivalent
to "send tabkey to HyperCard", but it plays a few tricks to
make things go faster.  It should be able to create a
substantial speedup for this type of stack.  FastTab should help until some
form of "spreadsheet" windoid XCMD
comes along.

Disclaimer:  my bias is obvious.

______________________________________________________________________
John Miller                         (604) 433-1795
Symplex Systems                     AppleLink:  (???)  CDA0461
Burnaby, British Columbia           Fax: (604) 430-8516
Canada                              usenet:  john_miller@mindlink.uucp

Macintosh Consulting and Software Development
_______________________________________________________________________

ralph@world.std.com (Ralph Lombreglia) (04/03/91)

>Slow tabbing between fields in HC 2

There is apparently a recent external called (I believe) FastTab 1.0,
or something like that, which claims to speed up tabbing on
backgrounds containing numerous fields.  I haven't tried it, don't
have it, and don't know where to get it at the moment.  But maybe
someone else has heard of it, too.  At least it's something to keep an
eye out for.

Ralph Lombreglia
----------------
ralph@world.std.com
MCI Mail & BIX: rlombreglia