Re: [9fans] acme scrollbar

["roger peppe" <rogpeppe@gmail.com>]

On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 8:13 PM, erik quanstrom <quanstro@coraid.com> wrote:
>> Hi,
>> The scrollbar handle will always change it's length when moving
>> through the files.
>> Why isn't the length based on the total lines of the file?
>
> because that would require reading the whole file.

actually, acme does read the whole file.

but if the scrollbar represents, as it does (up to a point) in other
systems, the vertical proportion of the total view occupied by the
currently visible view, acme would have to recalculate the
total vertical size every time the window changes width.

since one excellent attribute of acme is that it deals with very large
files well (and it keeps most of the file cached in a temporary file),
forcing it to re-read all of the data in all file when a column is resized
could be really quite slow. thinking about it, perhaps that's what
you meant by "reading the file" above?

luckily the fact that the scrollbar changes size doesn't matter
at all, as you almost never have to aim the mouse at it.
i'm generally not keen on the ergonomics of 8½/rio, but i think the
scrollbar design
is a brilliant exception. where were they first seen in this form?