2 Understanding the painting process
4 This file tries to describe the state of the metrics/painting
5 mechanism, and identify the improvements that could be made. The first
6 section can be read alone, although the context for them is really
7 given in the following ones.
9 Please keep this file up to date as the code evolves!!!
18 These questions are consequences of the description made in the
19 following section. Some actions are proposed.
23 This flag only has an effect in the current BufferView, but I think it
24 is useful in other views too. Doing this will require some work on the
25 update pipeline, though.
27 ** Buffer::change issues
29 When calling Buffer::changed outside of bv::processUpdateFlags,
30 how do we know that the update strategy is set correctly? It is
31 possible to reset the strategy at the end of bv::draw. What would be
32 a good value? NoScreenUpdate?
34 On a related note, what is the semantics of a call to
35 Buffer::changed(false)? What does the caller mean?
38 ** How to avoid redraw with FitCursor when the cursor is already OK?
40 In this case, we invoke Buffer::change(false) with drawing disabled
41 and NoScreenUpdate strategy.
43 In the draw phase, bv::checkCursorScrollOffset (the horizontal
44 scrolling machinery) will change the strategy to FullScreenUpdate if
45 the current row needs further scrolling.
47 When the update strategy it kept to NoScreenUpdate, there is currently
48 a no-draw full repaint, which should not be necessary. It would be
49 possible to avoid that if the call to checkCursorScrollOffset was done
50 in bv::processUpdateFlags instead of bv::draw.
52 The global idea would be to extend FitCursor to cover also horizontal
56 * Clean-up of drawing code
58 ** Set Row::changed() in a finer way
62 When the height of the current paragraph changes, there is no need for
63 a full screen update. Only the rows after the current one need to have
64 their position recomputed.
66 This is also true when scrolling (how to do that?)
70 It should be possible to check whether the new row is the same as the
71 old one and keep its changed() status in this case. This would reduce
72 a lot the amount of stuff to redraw.
74 ** Put labels and friends in the Row as elements
76 It should not be necessary to access the Paragraph object to draw.
77 Adding the static elements to Row is a lot of work, but worth it IMO.
79 ** do not add the vertical margin of main text to first/last row
81 Would make code cleaner. Probably no so difficult.
83 ** When a paragraph ends with a newline, compute correctly the height of the extra row.
84 ** Merging bv::updateMetrics and tm::metrics
86 While the full metrics computation tries hard to limit the number of
87 paragraphs that are rebroken, the version that is used for inner inset
88 does not try any such optimization. This can be very bad for very tall
89 insets. We should re-use the bv::updateMetrics logic:
90 + transfer all the logic of bv::updateMetrics to tm.
91 + Main InsetText should not be special.
93 The difficulty for a tall table cell for example, is that it may be
94 necessary to break the whole contents to know the width of the cell.
97 * Description of current drawing mechanism
99 ** Three-stage drawing
101 There are three parts to drawing the work area:
103 + the metrics phase computes the size of insets and breaks the
104 paragraphs into rows. It stores the dimension of insets (both
105 normal and math) in bv::coordCache.
107 + the nodraw drawing phase paints the screen (see below) with a null
108 painter. The only useful effect is to store the inset positions.
110 + an update() signal is sent. This in turn will trigger a paint
111 event, and the actual screen painting will happen then.
113 The machinery is controlled via bv::processUpdateFlags. This method is
114 called at the end of bv::mouseEventDispatch and in
115 GuiApplication::dispatch, via the updateCurrentView method. There are
116 also several calls in code related to dialogs. We should evaluate
117 whether this is correct.
119 Depending on the Update::flags passed to the method, it sets an update
120 strategy in (NoScreenUpdate, SingleParUpdate, FullScreenUpdate,
121 DecorationUpdate). It triggers a recomputation of the metrics when either:
123 + Update::Force has been specified
124 + Update::FitCursor has been specified and there is a need to scroll
126 + Update::SinglePar has been specified and the current paragraph has
129 If a computation of metrics has taken place, Force is removed from the
130 flags and ForceDraw is added instead.
132 It is OK to call processUpateFlags several times before an update. In
133 this case, the effects are cumulative. processUpdateFlags executes the
134 metrics-related actions, but defers the actual drawing to the next
137 The screen is drawn (with appropriate update strategy), except when
138 update flag is Update::None.
141 ** Metrics computation (and nodraw drawing phase)
143 This is triggered by bv::updateMetrics, which calls tm::redoParagraph for
144 all visible paragraphs. Some Paragraphs above or below the screen (needed
145 for page up/down) and computed as needed.
147 tm::redoParagraph will call Inset::metrics for each inset. In the case
148 of text insets, this will invoke recursively tm::metrics, which redoes
149 all the paragraphs of the inset.
151 At the end of the function, bv::updatePosCache is called. It triggers
152 a repaint of the document with a NullPainter (a painter that does
153 nothing). This has the effect of caching all insets positions.
155 ** Drawing the work area.
157 This is done in bv::draw. This method is triggered by a paint event,
158 mainly called through Buffer::changed, which draws all the work areas
159 that show the given buffer.
161 Note that, When Buffer::changed is called outside of
162 bv::processUpdateFlags, it is not clear whether the update strategy
163 has been set to a reasonable value beforehand.
165 The action depends on the update strategy:
167 + NoScreenUpdate: repaint the whole screen with drawing disabled.
168 This is only needed to update the inset positions. I am not sure
169 when this is necessary, actually. This is triggered when:
170 - Update::FitCursor is set but the cursor is already visible. It is
171 not clear why something needs to be done in this case, since this
172 should be equivalent to Update::None.
173 - this is also set when update flag is Update::None, but this value
174 is AFAICS not acted on in the code (meaning that nothing happens
175 at all in this case).
177 + FullScreenUpdate: repaint the whole screen. This is set when:
178 - updateMetrics has been invoked.
179 - scroll value of current row has changed (although this should not
182 + DecorationUpdate: actually like FullScreenUpdate, although it is
183 intended to only update inset decorations. This triggers when:
184 - Update::Decoration is set (without Update::Force) as flag.
185 - An hovered inset is detected.
187 + SingleParUpdate: only tries to repaint current paragraph in a way
188 that is not yet very clear to me.
190 BufferView::draw can also be called with a null painter from
191 BufferView::updateMetrics().