Class: TextCollector

• Inheritance
• Description
• Related information
• Class protocol
  • Signal constants
  • debugging
  • defaults
  • instance creation
• Instance protocol
  • Compatibility-ST80
  • accessing
  • event handling
  • initialization & release
  • private
  • queries
  • scrolling
  • stream messages
  • stream messages-emphasis
  • transcript specials

Inheritance:

   Object
   |
   +--GraphicsContext
      |
      +--DeviceGraphicsContext
         |
         +--GraphicsMedium
            |
            +--DisplaySurface
               |
               +--SimpleView
                  |
                  +--View
                     |
                     +--ListView
                        |
                        +--TextView
                           |
                           +--EditTextView
                              |
                              +--TextCollector
                                 |
                                 +--TerminalView
                                 |
                                 +--Workspace

Package:

stx:libwidg

Category:

Views-Text

Version:

rev: 1.104 date: 2009/12/03 10:45:15

user: stefan

file: TextCollector.st directory: libwidg

module: stx stc-classLibrary: libwidg

Author:

Claus Gittinger

Description:

a view for editable text, which also understands some stream messages.
Instances of this view can take the place of a stream and display the 
received text.
Its main use in the system is the Transcript, but it can also be used for
things like trace-windows, errorLogs etc.

If collecting is turned on, a textcollector will not immediately display 
entered text, but wait for some short time (timeDelay) and collect incoming 
data - finally updating the whole chunk in one piece. 
This helps slow display devices, which would otherwise scroll a lot. 
(on fast displays this is less of a problem).

The total number of lines kept is controlled by lineLimit, if more lines 
than this limit are added at the bottom, the textcollector will forget lines 
at the top. 
You can set linelimit to nil (i.e. no limit), but you may need a lot 
of memory then ...

[StyleSheet paramters (transcript only):]

    transcriptForegroundColor       defaults to textForegroundColor
    transcriptBackgroundColor'      defaults to textBackgroundColor.

    transcriptCursorForegroundColor
    transcriptCursorBackgroundColor

Related information:

    CodeView
    EditTextView
    ActorStream

Class protocol:

 transcriptQuerySignal

 debugSendersOfMessagePattern: aGLOBMatchPattern

ever want to know, who sends a particular message to the transcript ?
Call this with a match string and get a halt, when the message is next sent

 defaultCollectSize

the number of lines buffered for delayed update

 defaultLineLimit

the number of lines remembered by default

 defaultTimeDelay

the time in seconds to wait & collect by default

 defaultTranscriptSize

the number of cols/lines by which the Transcript should come up

 initialize

 newTranscript

create and open a new transcript.
This is a leftOver method from times were the Launcher & Transcript
were two different views. It is no longer recommended.

 newTranscript: name

create and open a new transcript.
This is a leftOver method from times were the Launcher & Transcript
were two different views. It is no longer recommended.

Instance protocol:

 deselect

 flush

 autoRaise

 autoRaise: something

 beginEntry

noop for now, ST80 compatibility

 collect: aBoolean

turn on/off collecting - if on, do not output immediately
but collect text and output en-bloque after some time delta

 collectSize: numberOfLines

set the collect buffer size. If collect is enabled,
the receiver will force update of the view,
whenever that many lines have been collected
(or the updateTimeDelay interval has passed).
With collect turned off, an immediate update is performed.

 destroyAction: aBlock

define the action to be performed when I get destroyed.
This is a special feature, to allow resetting Transcript to Stderr
when closed. (see TextCollectorclass>>newTranscript)

 endEntry

flush collected output; displaying all that has been buffered so far

 lineLimit

return the number of text-lines I am supposed to hold

 lineLimit: aNumber

define the number of text-lines I am supposed to hold

 updateTimeDelay: seconds

if collect is enabled, the receiver will update its view,
after that time delay (i.e. it collects more output during that period),
or when collectSize lines have been collected without update.
With collect turned off, an immediate update is performed.

 exposeX: x y: y width: w height: h

flush buffered text when exposed

 destroy

destroy this view

 editMenu

return my popUpMenu; thats the superClasses menu,
minus any accept item.

 initialize

 mapped

view became visible - show collected lines (if any)

 reinitialize

reinit after a snapIn.
recreate access-semaphore; image could have been save (theoretically)
with the semaphore locked - in this case, we had a deadlock

 release

 checkLineLimit

this method checks if the text has become too large (> lineLimit)
and cuts off some lines at the top if so; it must be called whenever lines
have been added to the bottom

 installDelayedUpdate

arrange for collecting input for some time,
and output all buffered strings at once after a while.
This makes output to the transcript much faster on systems
with poor scrolling performance (i.e. dumb vga cards ...).

 current

return the current (your screens) transcript.
In multiDisplay applications, this need NOT be the main transcript.
But typically, this is the same as Transcript.

 scrollTo: anOrigin redraw: doRedraw

 addLine: line

append a line to the outstanding lines buffer

 cr

output a carriage return, finishing the current line

 doesNotUnderstand: aMessage

this is funny: all message we do not understand, are passed
on to the stream which will send the characters via nextPut:
This way, we understand all Stream messages - great isn't it!

 lineLength

to make a textCollector (somewhat) compatible with printer
streams, support the lineLength query

 nextPut: something

append somethings printString to my displayed text.
This allows TextCollectors to be used Stream-wise

 nextPutAll: something

append all of something to my displayed text.
This allows TextCollectors to be used Stream-wise

 show: anObject

insert the argument aString at current cursor position

 showCR: anObject

insert the argument aString at current cursor position,
and advance to the next line. This is the same as a #show:
followed by a #cr.

 tab

append a tab-character to the stream.
This is only allowed, if the receiver supports writing.

 bgColor: aColor

 bold

switch to bold - followup text sent via show/nextPutAll: will be inserted in
a bold font.

 color: aColor

 italic

 normal

 reverse

 underline

 beTranscript

make the receiver be the systemTranscript; this one
is accessable via the global Transcript and gets relevant
system messages from various places.

 beTranscript: name

make the receiver be the systemTranscript; this one
is accessable via the global Transcript and gets relevant
system messages from various places.

 clear

 flash

make sure everything is visible, before flashing