Faster GUI text control

[Paul McNett]

Jeremy Bowers wrote:
> The problem is that if you're really looking for performance, it may
> differ based on the characteristics of the text and the quality of the
> target computer, the platform (which you don't mention; GTK may scream in
> Linux and make you scream in Windows...), etc., and there may be no one
> person who can give you a firm "This is the best solution for your
> situation" answer.

Also, it must be said that thousands of lines of text in a GUI control 
may not be necessary. Do the users really need to be able to scroll 
through that much text all at once in the general case, or do they 
perhaps only ever need to see the last few dozen lines? Could they 
instead "page" through the text in swallowable morsels, say a couple 
hundred lines at a time?

Python can handle gargantuan amounts of text with little noticable 
performance penalty, while GUI controls aren't necessarily designed for 
that. What I'm getting at is that you could still have the entire string 
in memory, but only feed portions of that string to the GUI text control 
at a time.

I'm jumping in here - perhaps the OP already told us what the 
application is, but I'm curious why it is necessary to have thousands of 
lines displayed and editable all at once, and wonder if the design 
should be reconsidered. I know that native Windows controls in 
particular tend to get really squirrly and unpredictable once you push 
into thousands of lines.

-- 
pkm ~ http://paulmcnett.com