Text-List oddity?

Hello all. I don't remember if I introduce myself before, but I had done some postings here and there. I am newbie/intermediate programmer try to get a good understating of Rebol. Which BTW, I like everyday more and more. However sometimes I find things that just don't make any sense. Can any one explain why the keys-tl face doesn't get refresh in the following script? db: [ key1 "value1" key2 "value2"] lay: layout [ keys-tl: text-list with [ texts: copy [] ] load-btn: btn "Show keys" [ keys-tl/texts: copy extract db 2 probe keys-tl/texts show keys-tl ] ] view lay Thanks, Jaime -- The best way to predict the future is to invent it -- Steve Jobs

On 15-Jun-03, Jaime Vargas wrote:

> Hello all. I don't remember if I introduce myself before, but I had > done some postings here and there. I am newbie/intermediate > ] > view lay

Hi Jamie, Carl's response shows what is probably the best way to do what you want. The reason for your problem can only be understood with reference to the internals of text-list. When a text-list is created some initialisation takes place that puts the data in a specific variable. For text-list this is the Lines variable. Lines refers to a block of lines to display and this is what Text-List uses. During initialisation if the Data variable is none, the Texts variable is used to set it. Then the Lines variable is set with the Data variable. Because of the way references to blocks work, if you manipulate the block referenced by Data, you are in fact manipulating the Lines block. So you could just change your code to set the Lines variable only. Like this: db: [key1 "value1" key2 "value2"] lay: layout [ keys-tl: text-list with [ texts: copy [] ] load-btn: btn "Show keys" [ keys-tl/lines: copy extract db 2 keys-tl/update ; If using View 1.2.8+ probe keys-tl/texts show keys-tl ] ] view lay But then if you forget, or use some other code that assumes Data has a valid reference, you'll get a problem. So you would need to set Texts, Data and Lines all to the same new block. But that is not ideal either, because if VID changes (quite possible) your code could break. So it is much better to do as Carl recommends, and that is to clear the existing block and insert the new contents. One thing to remember about VID, is that specification you give Layout is used during the construction of View faces and is not used once the face has been created. Also, many of the VID styles carry out important work during their construction *only*. Once the face is created, its behaviour and look is determined by its internal variables and functions - not by the original specification block. Perhaps for these styles, an assumption was made by the designer that a relatively fixed style is all that would normally be required (this doesn't preclude someone from developing more complex dynamic styles). Regards, Brett.

Thanks Carl and Brett. This is now clear. It just takes sometime to get accustomed to VID. And it is easy to forget that is just an specification dialect and not the real implementation. -- Jaime On Saturday, June 14, 2003, at 08:51 PM, Brett Handley wrote: