Complexity and Limits

Complexity and Limits
Prev	Chapter 6. Gstripes	Next

Gstripes adds considerable visual complexity to a Graphical User Interface; visual complexity costs performance.

The all important performance factor for Gstripes is the background complexity. Gradients in the background are expensive, while AQUA®-like stripes have a moderate performance impact. Using an empty background will almost achieve vanilla Tk performance. The amount of hijacked controls isn’t a factor at all, as long as the described mechanism is used. And no more than 100 items are displayed inside a single dialog at the same time.

Gstripes is designed for resolution independence, it supports font glyphs and vector graphics. Using vector graphics instead of bitmaps has a massive positive effect on performance. A fully vectorized Graphical User Interface, created with Gstripes, Goolbar and Galette might be twice as fast as a Graphical User Interface with even few bitmaps.

Example 6.41. nilstripes for High Performance

Add the following code to your Tcl-source or the XRDB resource file. Nilstripes creates a plain coloured background.

option add *stripes.stripesCommand nilstripes
option add *Goolbar.stripesCommand nilstripes

...or inside the XRDB-resource file...

*stripes.stripesCommand: nilstripes
*Goolbar.stripesCommand: nilstripes

In case, where »nilstripes« does not suffice: deactivate some or all Gstripes.

Example 6.42. Disable Gstripes Completely

# Disable all stripes:
option add *stripes 0
option add *Goolbar.stripes 0

or inside the X Resource Database:

*stripes: 0
*Goolbar.stripes 0

Example 6.43. Disable Gstripes Selectively

# stripesmenu...
# For menus via postcommand:
option add *Menu.stripes 0

# stripes and substripes...  
# For certain classes using stripes:
option add *MyClassWithoutStrips.stripes 0

# For certain instances using stripes:
option add *mywindow.stripes 0

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