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Re: Changes in wigdet behavior/appearance under IDL 4.0 [message #4488] Fri, 16 June 1995 00:00
zawodny is currently offline  zawodny
Messages: 121
Registered: August 1992
Senior Member
In article <3rpcqa$hcl@post.gsfc.nasa.gov> thompson@orpheus.nascom.nasa.gov (William Thompson) writes:
> zawodny@arbd0.larc.nasa.gov (Joseph M Zawodny) writes:
>
>> I am running IDL V4.0 under OSF/1 V3.0 and I have noticed that the new
>> release of IDL has radically altered the appearence of my widgets.

... stuff deleted

>> Dropping the XSIZE keyword "fixes" the problem.
>
>
> To solve this problem, we've gone through our code and removed all references
> to XSIZE and YSIZE in calls to WIDGET_LABEL. In my opinion, having XSIZE and
> YSIZE in pixels for a text label is useless.

My orginial intent in using the XSIZE and/or YSIZE keywords in WIDGET_LABEL
was to create a fixed size label where I could write various things while
the widget was running. The key word idea here is fixed size. I did not
want my widget geometry shifting around after every WIDGET_CONTROL call.
As it turns out it may have been unneccessary. As it is now I'd have to
agree with you.

--
Joseph M. Zawodny (KO4LW) NASA Langley Research Center
Internet: j.m.zawodny@larc.nasa.gov MS-475, Hampton VA, 23681-0001
TCP/IP: ko4lw@ko4lw.ampr.org Packet: ko4lw@n4hog.va.usa.na
Re: Changes in wigdet behavior/appearance under IDL 4.0 [message #4493 is a reply to message #4488] Thu, 15 June 1995 00:00 Go to previous message
David S. Foster/Admin is currently offline  David S. Foster/Admin
Messages: 14
Registered: May 1995
Junior Member
zawodny@arbd0.larc.nasa.gov (Joseph M Zawodny) wrote:
>
> I am running IDL V4.0 under OSF/1 V3.0 and I have noticed that the new
> release of IDL has radically altered the appearence of my widgets. I have

> Has anyone else seen this or related alterations to widget behavior? If so
> on what platforms and under what operating(windowing) system?

Yes! Text widgets update much slower, and the XSIZE and YSIZE keywords
to WIDGET_LABEL are in pixel units. I personally think these should be
in character units, since that's what you're displaying! It's a shame
that you have to upgrade your code as well!

David Foster
foster@bial6.ucsd.edu
Re: Changes in wigdet behavior/appearance under IDL 4.0 [message #4501 is a reply to message #4493] Thu, 15 June 1995 00:00 Go to previous message
thompson is currently offline  thompson
Messages: 584
Registered: August 1991
Senior Member
zawodny@arbd0.larc.nasa.gov (Joseph M Zawodny) writes:

> In article <3rmods$j1l@reznor.larc.nasa.gov> zawodny@arbd0.larc.nasa.gov (Joseph M Zawodny) writes:
>> I am running IDL V4.0 under OSF/1 V3.0 and I have noticed that the new
>> release of IDL has radically altered the appearence of my widgets.

> ... the rest deleted.

> Looking at things a bit more, I notice that one of my widgets is running
> much slower (a factor of 2 or more) and is now flickering. I traced this
> "problem" to a point in the program where I am plotting calculations on the
> fly and displaying some updated information in a WIDGET_TEXT field. It
> appears that the formerly smooth operation of the following line under IDL
> V3.6.1 has been changed in some way under V4.0.

> widget_control,wids(2),set_value=curtim

> For some reason, updating the value of a WIDGET_TEXT of a realized widget
> now consumes enormous resources (It takes as much time to update the field
> as it does to perform the complex orbital caclulations I am doing) and in
> the process also causes my widget to flicker now. This is most annoying
> and unacceptable.

I actually have this problem under 3.6.1c. It was much better in version
3.5.1. The only workaround I could come up with was to update the label every
10th step instead of every step.

It's really annoying.

Bill Thompson
Re: Changes in wigdet behavior/appearance under IDL 4.0 [message #4502 is a reply to message #4493] Thu, 15 June 1995 00:00 Go to previous message
thompson is currently offline  thompson
Messages: 584
Registered: August 1991
Senior Member
zawodny@arbd0.larc.nasa.gov (Joseph M Zawodny) writes:

> I am running IDL V4.0 under OSF/1 V3.0 and I have noticed that the new
> release of IDL has radically altered the appearence of my widgets. I have
> traced the "problem" to the following example.

> r = widget_label(b,value='Junk',xsize=4)

> Under previous versions of IDL this would work as expected, but under V4.0
> the text is truncated (only a fraction of a letter is visible). Dropping
> the XSIZE keyword "fixes" the problem.

> It appears that the "units" on the XSIZE keyword has changed from
> characters to pixels. ...

I also ran into this problem during the beta testing of IDL 4.0, and complained
to RSI. They said that widget_label is now working corectly, that it's
supposed to be in pixels. After some experimentation, I came to the conclusion
that previous versions of IDL were ignoring the XSIZE and YSIZE keywords and
simply sizing it based on the number of characters. We were only being fooled
that the XSIZE and YSIZE keywords were doing something.

To solve this problem, we've gone through our code and removed all references
to XSIZE and YSIZE in calls to WIDGET_LABEL. In my opinion, having XSIZE and
YSIZE in pixels for a text label is useless.

Bill Thompson
Re: Changes in wigdet behavior/appearance under IDL 4.0 [message #4504 is a reply to message #4493] Wed, 14 June 1995 00:00 Go to previous message
kotsines is currently offline  kotsines
Messages: 4
Registered: June 1995
Junior Member
In article <3rmqfv$jsj@reznor.larc.nasa.gov>,
Joseph M Zawodny <zawodny@arbd0.larc.nasa.gov> wrote:
>
> Looking at things a bit more, I notice that one of my widgets is running
> much slower (a factor of 2 or more) and is now flickering. I traced this
> "problem" to a point in the program where I am plotting calculations on the
> fly and displaying some updated information in a WIDGET_TEXT field. It
> appears that the formerly smooth operation of the following line under IDL
> V3.6.1 has been changed in some way under V4.0.
>
> widget_control,wids(2),set_value=curtim
>

Your problems are shared by many, I think. We were speaking of these
type of problems earlier in the thread 'widget convulsions'. I can verify
that I have these exact same problems as you now that we've upgraded to
4.0. We are on a HPUX / X11 system.

-tk
tomk@cmdl.noaa.gov
Re: Changes in wigdet behavior/appearance under IDL 4.0 [message #4515 is a reply to message #4504] Wed, 14 June 1995 00:00 Go to previous message
zawodny is currently offline  zawodny
Messages: 121
Registered: August 1992
Senior Member
In article <3rmods$j1l@reznor.larc.nasa.gov> zawodny@arbd0.larc.nasa.gov (Joseph M Zawodny) writes:
> I am running IDL V4.0 under OSF/1 V3.0 and I have noticed that the new
> release of IDL has radically altered the appearence of my widgets.

... the rest deleted.

Looking at things a bit more, I notice that one of my widgets is running
much slower (a factor of 2 or more) and is now flickering. I traced this
"problem" to a point in the program where I am plotting calculations on the
fly and displaying some updated information in a WIDGET_TEXT field. It
appears that the formerly smooth operation of the following line under IDL
V3.6.1 has been changed in some way under V4.0.

widget_control,wids(2),set_value=curtim

For some reason, updating the value of a WIDGET_TEXT of a realized widget
now consumes enormous resources (It takes as much time to update the field
as it does to perform the complex orbital caclulations I am doing) and in
the process also causes my widget to flicker now. This is most annoying
and unacceptable.

Based on this and what I have read in this group, I reccommend that current
users do not upgrade to V4.0

OH BTW, I have gotten wind of a new maintanence policy from the folks at
RSI. In addition to a price hike, they are now charging floating network
sites for each and every license in the site (they used to charge by the
site). So, for a 6 license site running under OSF the annual maintanence
has gone from $250 to $2250 ($375 * 6) per year. So plan your budgets
accordingly.

Time to look again at that site license from PV WAVE. Since I have
to rewrite that code anyway to work under IDL V4.0, I might as well
consider my alternatives.

--
Joseph M. Zawodny (KO4LW) NASA Langley Research Center
Internet: j.m.zawodny@larc.nasa.gov MS-475, Hampton VA, 23681-0001
TCP/IP: ko4lw@ko4lw.ampr.org Packet: ko4lw@n4hog.va.usa.na
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