Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!usc!apple!anderson
From: anderson@Apple.COM (Clark Anderson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: TextEdit 32K limit.
Keywords: text edit textedit 32K limit pounding head against wall
Message-ID: <41967@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 15 Jun 90 18:25:30 GMT
References: <334@caslon.cs.arizona.edu>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 42


I wrote a set of routines that helps surpass the 32K limit.
It was a pain in the neck, too. I would love to give
you the source, because I am full aware of the frustration
you're dealing with, but since it belongs to Apple, I can't do that.
If it was my code, I'd mail it to you in a flash...

What you might try is this:
1) Have a single TERec. This rec hold the text that the user
   is currently looking at.
2) Create 2 10K buffers, one to hold the text immediately
   before and immediately after the text in the TERec.
   The TERec only holds 10K at a time. This allows the TE
   routines to run fairly fast, since they only deal with
   10K at a time. 
   Unfortunately, this limits pasting to 20K, but
   you can't have everything...
3) As the user scrolls thru the text, you swap blocks of text
   in and out of the TERec. The tricky part is adjusting the
   scroll bars...I worked on it for days, but it can be done.
   It can probably be done quicker, too, since I'm not an
   expert programmer.
4) You have to deal with little irritations like breaking
   the buffers at even lines, so half lines aren't coming
   up next, and things like that.
4) When it runs, it does run NICE.

Another alternative is to get the ThinkC libraries called
Capp's Construction Set. They have routines that bypass
the 32K limit on TextEdit.

Good luck. I hope this helps. 
                                         --clark

-- 
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Clark Anderson                  InterNet:  anderson@apple.com
CPU Engineering                 AppleLink: C.ANDERSON
Apple Computer, Inc             BellNet:   408-974-4593

"I speak only for myself, much to my employer's relief..."
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