Question for CAL,TOm,IRA or other testers

[crimmelcp]

I am going to cleanup some of my payroll applications.
I have maybe 150 to 200 scripts in the code tab. All written in X-Basic.
Has anyone tested the difference in speed between calling global scripts or moving some of the code to the buttons on the form. The xbasic scripts are 5 to 10 times faster than using operations, but is there any difference where the code is placed?

Question for CAL
Your utilites application???
Can your utility application go thru the forms and tell me which scrpts are not being called. Those would be candidates for deletion.

Thanks
Charlie Crimmel

[DaveM]

Re: Question for CAL,TOm,IRA or other testers

Charlie,

I believe the others will bare this out. Udf's are a great deal faster than the scripts and don't seem to run into each other(one is still running as the other starts) when running several in sequence. My testting showed about 10 times faster. Some others have said even more.

Usually, I will place a small piece of xbasic in a form button or form, but if it is involved, change it to a udf or script.

I am not trying to get you to change your methods, but it is worth trying out.

Call your udf's from the buttons instead of the scripts. I was amazed at the difference.

DaveM

[CALocklin]

Re: Question for CAL,TOm,IRA or other testers

Has anyone tested the difference in speed between calling global scripts or moving some of the code to the buttons on the form.

I've never tested this.

Can your utility application go thru the forms and tell me which scrpts are not being called. Those would be candidates for deletion.

Absolutely. That's one of the things I use the AIMS App Analyzer for rather often - cleaning up unused scripts, functions, and layouts.

DISCLAIMER: Just because it says something is not referenced doesn't mean it isn't used! For example, the "autoexec" script should always come up as "not referenced" because there should normally be nothing calling this script except A5 itself. I've also been known to have layouts, scripts, and sometimes functions that I might use from the control panel but are not designed to be used as a normal part of the application. Or, they could just be "under construction". Before making the final decision to delete something, make sure you really don't need it. Use the "not referenced" only as a guide.

[turbojack]

Re: Question for CAL,TOm,IRA or other testers

When I have a script I think I do not need anymore I add to the name
".0ld112007" That was I know the date I changed it. If I go a year without using it I delete it. That might be a good thing to do when CAl's utility says not referenced.

[csda1]

Re: Question for CAL,TOm,IRA or other testers

Jack,

When I have a script I think I do not need anymore I add to the name
".0ld112007" That was I know the date I changed it. If I go a year without using it I delete it. That might be a good thing to do when CAl's utility says not referenced.

That's not a bad idea to throw the date in the name, although you may run out of characters for the name. One change I would make is to reverse the date to a yyyymmdd format or yymmdd format. This will allow easy sorting of similar names by date.

I generally use code (scripts/udfs) routines starting with "a_" to indicate a work in progress. Any that are old versions of the same scripts are prefaced with a "z" and variants have a trailing number starting at 1.

For example zScriptname1, zScriptname2 etc. This puts the new ones at the top and old ones at the bottom of the code editor tab.

Using the date idea, these would change to
zScriptname_20071101, zScriptname_20071103 etc.

Charlie:

Has anyone tested the difference in speed between calling global scripts or moving some of the code to the buttons on the form......, but is there any difference where the code is placed?

Yes there is some overhead in event code referencing a code tab, but it's overhead amount is insignificant. Remember, the layout event was triggered directly or indirectly by a human, who works at a different perception of speed.

On the other hand, placing your code in the Code tab allows it to be put into a code library (AEX) and protecting it in a much more secure way. It also makes it much more easily searchable.

Script_Play overhead is 15 times greater than a function overhead for the invokation, but for most this is irrelevant. The code piece should normally run orders of magnitude longer than the overhead of the call to it. Only certain functions (or code that would be used in the body of a tight loop need to be that highly optimized.)

DaveM:

Usually, I will place a small piece of xbasic in a form button or form, but if it is involved, change it to a udf or script.

The only caveat that most people run into is that the function call does not have access to the values available to the event code. In general, passing Parentform.this pointer as one of the parameters of the function and using that pointer as the starting point for needed values or passing the local_variables() pointer will solve this for many. As a last resort, use a shared variable (OK, but not as clean a method) or a global variable (a really bad technique unless you want the value to be persistent)