diff -r 000000000000 -r 1918ee327afb doc/src/examples/contiguouscache.qdoc --- /dev/null Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000 +++ b/doc/src/examples/contiguouscache.qdoc Mon Jan 11 14:00:40 2010 +0000 @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ +/**************************************************************************** +** +** Copyright (C) 2009 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies). +** All rights reserved. +** Contact: Nokia Corporation (qt-info@nokia.com) +** +** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit. +** +** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:LGPL$ +** No Commercial Usage +** This file contains pre-release code and may not be distributed. +** You may use this file in accordance with the terms and conditions +** contained in the Technology Preview License Agreement accompanying +** this package. +** +** GNU Lesser General Public License Usage +** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Lesser +** General Public License version 2.1 as published by the Free Software +** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.LGPL included in the +** packaging of this file. Please review the following information to +** ensure the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 requirements +** will be met: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html. +** +** In addition, as a special exception, Nokia gives you certain additional +** rights. These rights are described in the Nokia Qt LGPL Exception +** version 1.1, included in the file LGPL_EXCEPTION.txt in this package. +** +** If you have questions regarding the use of this file, please contact +** Nokia at qt-info@nokia.com. +** +** +** +** +** +** +** +** +** $QT_END_LICENSE$ +** +****************************************************************************/ + +/*! + \example tools/contiguouscache + \title Contiguous Cache Example + + The Contiguous Cache example shows how to use QContiguousCache to manage memory usage for + very large models. In some environments memory is limited and, even when it + isn't, users still dislike an application using excessive memory. + Using QContiguousCache to manage a list, rather than loading + the entire list into memory, allows the application to limit the amount + of memory it uses, regardless of the size of the data set it accesses + + The simplest way to use QContiguousCache is to cache as items are requested. When + a view requests an item at row N it is also likely to ask for items at rows near + to N. + + \snippet examples/tools/contiguouscache/randomlistmodel.cpp 0 + + After getting the row, the class determines if the row is in the bounds + of the contiguous cache's current range. It would have been equally valid to + simply have the following code instead. + + \code + while (row > m_rows.lastIndex()) + m_rows.append(fetchWord(m_rows.lastIndex()+1); + while (row < m_rows.firstIndex()) + m_rows.prepend(fetchWord(m_rows.firstIndex()-1); + \endcode + + However a list will often jump rows if the scroll bar is used directly, resulting in + the code above causing every row between the old and new rows to be fetched. + + Using QContiguousCache::lastIndex() and QContiguousCache::firstIndex() allows + the example to determine what part of the list the cache is currently caching. + These values don't represent the indexes into the cache's own memory, but rather + a virtual infinite array that the cache represents. + + By using QContiguousCache::append() and QContiguousCache::prepend() the code ensures + that items that may be still on the screen are not lost when the requested row + has not moved far from the current cache range. QContiguousCache::insert() can + potentially remove more than one item from the cache as QContiguousCache does not + allow for gaps. If your cache needs to quickly jump back and forth between + rows with significant gaps between them consider using QCache instead. + + And thats it. A perfectly reasonable cache, using minimal memory for a very large + list. In this case the accessor for getting the words into the cache + generates random information rather than fixed information. This allows you + to see how the cache range is kept for a local number of rows when running the + example. + + \snippet examples/tools/contiguouscache/randomlistmodel.cpp 1 + + It is also worth considering pre-fetching items into the cache outside of the + application's paint routine. This can be done either with a separate thread + or using a QTimer to incrementally expand the range of the cache prior to + rows being requested out of the current cache range. +*/