Re: NSBezierPath setLineDash

[Fred Kiefer]

Hi Stefan,

Stefan Urbanek wrote:
> Whe I set NSBezierPath setLineDash:count:phase: to one path then all 
> paths created after that one will have same line dash style. I think it 
> should be local to the path, or is it global? This value is reset after 
> each NSView drawRect:.

I had a look at this and it is not the method setLineDash:count:phase: 
that causes the problem, but the interaction between the NSBezierPath 
and the backend. We only send over the dash settings, if there is a dash 
at all, but we do not reset it, when we have no dash. Also the handling 
of this should be changed in some of the backends, art and winlib seem 
to get this correct, but I am not that sure about xlib. I will do some 
clean up here, but this will take a bit of time.

This is just one of the places where our current fontend backend 
interface could need some improvements. My position here is that all the 
PS interfaces to change any of the path drawing parameters should be 
deprecated and NSBezierPath methods used instead (This does not make a 
real difference, but would introduce the newer interfaces into our own 
code). In the backend those parameters would also be held inside of the 
current NSBezierPath (and of course changed, when a new path gets 
selected). Each time a path gets drawn those parameters would be applied 
again to the backend specific graphic context. It is easy to construct 
situations, where this may be a bit of an overhead, but for well 
structured drawing code it would not make a difference. And if we add 
the long discussed setPath: method for the graphic context, it may even 
be faster.

Fred