Re: [Gzz] 30th-31th (Benja)

[B. Fallenstein]

On Thursday 01 August 2002 09:08, Tuomas Lukka wrote:
> On Thu, Aug 01, 2002 at 12:59:20PM +0200, B. Fallenstein wrote:
> > I've committed a change to ScrollSpanMaker that creates new
> > TransientTextScrolls when the old ones have gone immutable.
>
> Heh, this is exactly the solution I thought of when mulling over
> this yesterday ;) Glad to see we're on the same track.

:-)

> No, FakeSpan works like a span but is saved as a string and has no
> identity to it - it's there so that you can put computer-generated
> text to enfilades if you want.
>
> The documentation apparently isn't clear enough yet ;)

It's not, but I understood it anyway (it's not the first time I thought about 
the problem :) ). But it makes for unresolved difficulties:
- What if the user copies the text elsewhere? Does it become a real span?
- What if the user enters own text in the same cell? If they make it a "user 
cell", I'd expect the span to become "real".
- IF the span becomes real when copying elsewhere, does the origin of the 
copy become that span, too? If not, when we copy the same fake span two 
times, it won't be a transclusion.

The point here is: When the user takes computer-generated text and uses it 
somehow, it arguably becomes real text.

Now, what do we gain if we save fake spans as a String? Some clarity, ok-- 
the blocks contain only text typed by humans. But else? Is it more efficient 
to save the text in the space diff instead of the scroll? Why? I think 
there's no big difference.

The *real* efficiency problem I do see is when computer-generated text 
changes: for example, a cell keeping the current mouse position. It would 
pollute the scrolls with data.

An elegant solution to this would be, as I said, to save only those spans 
that are currently inside some cell when the space is saved.

But as I said, it's not an idea I propose for now.
- Benja