Much appreciated reply - I didn't even think of the [ @$_[1] ] construct - that should save a lot of clone() calls - I'll test asap.

BTW, as way of explanation, the _atlayer sub basically 'layers' the attributes of the current "character" onto the already-existing attributes at the position. First arg to _atlayer is existing attributes, second arg is 'new' attributes. The clone/copy of the new atrributes is necessary because the 'new' attributes are stored as an array ref in the object - a la the current 'brush' in a Qt painter. I can't just modify the "brush" array ref - must copy first, else the master "brush" would be modified for all subsequent calls.

The 'layering' mentioned basically says that if there are no attributes in the "brush" (e.g. the -1 or the undef), then apply attributes from the existing attribute ref, but if the brush has any attributes for that category (even an 'off' flag, such as for bold - which would make the final output have a DIM ansi code) the value sent in the second argument will take precedents over the existing attribute at that location.

Whew..*takes a breath * ... sorry, complicated explanation for what is actually kinda simple. Does it make sense?

In reply to Re^2: Optimizing a Text Canvas: An inner loop and a cloner by JosiahBryan
in thread Optimizing a Text Canvas: An inner loop and a cloner by JosiahBryan

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