World: r4wp

FAST-TALLY does not look like being universal. (I suppose it is designed 
to work only for B's containing integers...)

...and its speed cannot exceed the speed of more universal tallies 
in a significant way

...the RADIX algorithm looks even less universal (needs positive 
integers I guess)

Well, if you want to say that these algos need adaptations to fit 
every ones needs, you're right )

I wanted to tell that they are too specialized while bringing no 
speed advantage compared to Joel's code.

However, Joel's TALLY is not universal either. Joel criticized the 
problem with exceptions of the LESSER? function in his ML posting. 
But there are also exceptions related to the EQUAL? function which 
make his implementation non-universal (for some blocks B their elements 
are incomparable using the EQUAL? function). Such blocks cannot be 
processed using Joel's TALLY.

Found the way to use labels that are indexed: I already had them 
in a panel like this 		
panel-1: panel [across
		    space 0x0

      label "_" label "_" label "_" label "_" ; just use an underscore 
      to see it on screen 
		    label "_" label "_" label "_" label "_"
		]

in a function change them like this f: func [] [     for n 1 8 1 
[

      waarde: to-string pick randwaarden n ; randwaarden is a block of 
      values

      do rejoin ["panel-1/pane/" n "/text: " waarde]]] ; I always use rejoin 
      in these situations.

This is REBOL, so no need to DO strings. It's slower and costs memory:

f: does [
	repeat n length? panel-1/pane [
		label/:n/text: to-string pick randwaarden n 
	]
	show panel-1
]

I am glad there is always a better way to be found! That solution 
is more scalable in the funtion part. Now I'll be off looking for 
an easy way to add extra labels on the fly. Guess that must be possible 
by adding a block [label "_"] to the pane?

You can do that, although that requires you to re-layout the pane. 
I don't know the code behind the panel, so that may or may not be 
the best way to do it. It's not the fastest way though. You can manually 
add a face object to the pane block, but you will then have to calculate 
its offset, initialize it by hand and resize the parent panel to 
fit the new face.

But remember that the panel block as described with [across space 
0x0 label "_" ... etc. is only a description. Adding something to 
that block will not affect your current layout. The LAYOUT function 
parses the block into a tree of objects (faces), which then can be 
displayed with VIEW.

So, you either re-build that layout, or you manipulate the face object 
tree directly.

main: layout block
view main

...function or other action for computing what block should become...
main: layout block ;set it again
unview/all
view main

you can make it a bit smoother than that by wrapping the whole thing 
in a panel and assigning a new face tree to that panel every time. 
Then you won't need to close and reopen the window.

Like that?

try this interactive test:

view layout [p: panel [button]]

escape to console and type:

p/pane: get in layout/tight [field 100] 'pane

show p

This replaces the pane in the panel P.

Then you will of course need to resize the panel and the window.

Within a panel sure would be smoother. Some larger layouts would 
require resizing as well. 

The example did what was to be expected. And I learned how to return 
to the running REBOL script after escaping in the terminal window!

it's a great way to interactively test and workout techniques for 
updating layouts.

when escaping to the console, events are no longer processed in the 
window. to continue getting events in the window, type:

do-events

I changed 1 label the font/color by setting panel1/pane/:n/text/font/color: 
white  and now all text fields including ones not on the panel are 
written in white. :-(

That is another attribute of VID, which is that many faces share 
the same font object. Update one, updates all font objects. The purpose 
of this is to save memory, but it comes off more as inconvenient, 
when doing things like this.

Update one, updates all font objects.
 => "Update one, updates all faces."

You can copy the font object with something like this:

label "boo" with [font: make font []]


There are other ways to trigger copying the font object during the 
layout process, but I can't exactly remember how, right now.

If I could switch it from a text to a label it would be nice. As 
yet I have this puzzling experience:
REBOL []
high-on: high-on-odd: false
swap-even: func [/local n] [

    either high-on [for n 2 8 2 [ panel-rechts/pane/:n/font/color: 'white] 
    high-on: false

    ][              for n 1 7 2 [ panel-rechts/pane/:n/font/color: 'black] 
    high-on: true ]
    show panel-rechts]

swap-odd: func [/local n] [

    either high-on-odd [for n 1 7 2 [panel-rechts/pane/:n/font/color: 
    'white

                                     panel-rechts/pane/:n/style: 'lbl-h-la-white] high-on-odd: false
    ][for n 1 7 2 [panel-rechts/pane/:n/font/color: 'black

                   panel-rechts/pane/:n/style: 'lbl-h-la-normal] high-on-odd: true]
    show panel-rechts]

spiegel-styles: stylize [
    lbl-h-la-normal: text left middle 40x100
    lbl-h-la-white: label left middle 40x100]
    
view layout [styles spiegel-styles
	across
	panel-rechts: panel [below space 0x0

    lbl-h-la-white "_" lbl-h-la-white "_" lbl-h-la-normal "_" lbl-h-la-normal 
    "_"

    lbl-h-la-normal "_" lbl-h-la-normal "_" lbl-h-la-normal "_" lbl-h-la-normal 
    "_"]
    return
    button "Even" [swap-even] button "Odd" [swap-odd]
    button "Debug" [print dump-face panel-rechts
    print panel-rechts/pane/1/font/color
    print panel-rechts/pane/1/color
    print panel-rechts/pane/1/style]
]

Where the first two labels change when button Odd is clicked. and 
then stay unchanged and the debug button shows the changes as expected 
(by me)

You can't simply switch the style by putting a new word in the STYLE 
facet. Each style is a prototype object with very different code 
to manage its internals. Generating a style using layout therefore 
involves getting a face from the style library, performing a set 
of operations on it for correct size and offset and run its initialization 
procedure. Only then is it inserted at the right localtion in the 
pane of the parent panel.

(But otherwise, it would be handy, if you could just do that :-))

You can study different styles using GET-STYLE.

For example:

probe get-style 'field


It's a bit misleading, though, as many styles share the same code. 
To really see how styles are built, you need to read the sourcecode 
for VID.

That is now on the wish-list!

When I name the labels lr1 thru lr8 and use the trick I found on 
www.pat665.free.fr/gtk/rebol-view.html which is w: to-word rejoin 
["lr" n] (for n is 1, 2, 3 or    8 you get the picture.) and f: get 
:w 

f/font/color: white and directly show the label: show f I can set 
them seperately. But it is a bit ugly to do it like this if I may 
say so.

Hi! Have a quick question:

Hi! Have a quick question:

i have a block of objects:
each object is constructed like...
  c: #object! [
    name: "wonderwoman"
    attribs: [
      Y1991: #object! [ a: 1 n: 2]
      Y1992: #object! [ a: 1 n: 2]
    ]
  ]

i need to sort the series based on fields of the attribs inner object
i dont want to create a new series...any ideas?

use the /compare refinement of sort (which can be a function).

>> help sort
USAGE:

    SORT series /case /skip size /compare comparator /part length /all 
    /reverse


DESCRIPTION:
     Sorts a series.
     SORT is an action value.

ARGUMENTS:
     series -- (Type: series port)

REFINEMENTS:
     /case -- Case sensitive sort.
     /skip -- Treat the series as records of fixed size.
         size -- Size of each record. (Type: integer)
     /compare -- Comparator offset, block or function.
         comparator -- (Type: integer block function)
     /part -- Sort only part of a series.
         length -- Length of series to sort. (Type: integer)
     /all -- Compare all fields
     /reverse -- Reverse sort order

hi maxim!

thanks - saw that in the docs, and also saw brett;s sort-object-series 
function on the mailing list
not quite sure how it works with an inner object though

the compare function should return true of false based on order of 
the two input arguments.

this works great for fields in a simple object series:
sort-object-series: func [
  series
  field
] [

  sort/compare series func[a b][lesser? get in a field get in b field]
]

am fumbling with the get in bit...

sf: func [a b][   a/attribs/Y1991/n > b/attribs/Y1991/n  ]

sort/compare series :sf

that was stupid of me to miss!
thanks!

no, its so simple we often think that there is more to it :-)

:)

can i introduce an additional complexity?
what if i need to sort a hash?
m: #hash! [key-a obj-a key-b obj-b]

sort/compare/skip series :sf 2
??

yep

cool! love rebol :)

but if you need to sort with sf above (which uses obj data) then 
you also need to add the index within the skip. (because the obj 
is not the first item of the fields marked with /skip