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Re: canvas.scroll

To: REALbasic Network Users Group <realbasic-nug at lists dot realsoftware dot com>
Subject: Re: canvas.scroll
From: "Joseph J. Strout" <joe at realsoftware dot com>
Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2001 18:47:29 -0800
At 3:18 PM -0800 12/9/01, Mr. Weasel Willits wrote:

The way I see it, REALbasic should update that area without calling the
paint event forcing us to redraw it. Why?

To me a better question is: How? How is RB supposed to guess what you want to be shown in the newly-exposed area? Perhaps if we'd managed to finish that "DWIM" (Do What I Mean) control, we could do it, but otherwise...

To me the purpouse of the scroll method is to let REALbasic refresh the canvas
based on it's current .graphics data. Doesn't that make sense?

No, because Graphics objects don't HAVE any data other than current text font, size, style, and foreground color. That's it. A Graphics object is an interface for drawing; it is NOT a storage area for graphics data. When you draw to a Graphics object, the drawing is immediate, not retained. There is no memory of what has been drawn in the past, nor any way to predict what you might want to draw in the future.

The only object in standard RB which retains graphics is the Picture class. But a canvas doesn't have a Picture -- except for its Backdrop, which it does indeed draw for you.

HTH,
- Joe
--
,------------------------------------------------------------------.
|    Joseph J. Strout           REAL Software, Inc.                |
|    joe at realsoftware dot com       http://www.realsoftware.com        |
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