[PD] Growing patch-window size (Was:Re: changing the look of Pd to be more readable)

[simon wise]

On 9 Nov 2007, at 2:59 AM, Steffen Juul wrote:

> I made a patch to test the behavior. This is the test:
>
> 1) Note that the patch is 500x300 initially. Either by opening in a  
> text editor or with 'head -1' or.
> 2) Open the attached patch. Click the [10( on one of the sides.
> 3) Note that the patch has grown to 504x304
>
> Now the weird bit.
>
> 4) with out closing the patch, click the [10( again.
> 5) Note that it has _not_ grown to 508x308.
> 6) Close the patch
> 7) Reopen the patch
> 8) Click the [bang(
> 9) Note that it has now grown to 508x308
>
> So it seams it grows 4px per run with a reload.

This growing on each save/open cycle seems to have changed in the  
latest autobuilds:

Pd-0.40.3-extended-20071109 for PPC (on OSX 10.4.8)

Now I get a 2 pixel SHRINKING of the window on each of these cycles,  
and the part of the patch shown when the window opens isn't exactly  
the top left part anymore.

IIRC the 3 pixel border around the active window has just been  
removed - that could account for the 6 pixel difference in the  
shrinkage/growth ... maybe if the border was made 1 pixel the size of  
the window would be stable????




Playing around and testing it seems something (possibly in the new  
visuals) is slowwwing down displaying/opening patches

- resizing a window is jerky and CPU hits 100% (same patches have no  
problems resizing, with much lower CPU usage, in autobuild Pd-0.40.2- 
extended-2007-05-01 on the same system) which will have consequences  
(dropouts etc) and is extremely noticeable on my ageing powerbook

- it seems to depend on how many objects are visible in the window at  
the time (when only a small part of a big patch is showing the  
problem is less). Large patches take an age to open.





The new visuals are nice - I'll find out soon how much it helps my  
problems swapping patches with intricate layouts and GOP between mac,  
linux and windows (certainly old patches for mac layout cleanly, no  
overlaps etc). The live update for the font bomb is great.

Thanks for all the hard work, especially the documentation   ... lots  
of nice touches   ... the improved help menu works well, the web  
references will great for newcomers finding their way around and make  
the locations for web documentation more consistent (are there local  
settings needed for the IRC item to work?)   ... now midi and Gem  
help work properly!   ... the [pddplink] GUI deserves a place in the  
'put' menu! (I guess its been around for a while but I've only just  
noticed it)   ... the 'text window' checkbox is good - does it save  
cpu if it is off, eg does it mean [print] uses less cpu?   ... the  
cursor changing in click-able areas is nice, and I'm sure I'll find a  
use for [cursor] in setting up nicer user interfaces.


simon