On Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:43
9 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:14:17 -0700, "Gene E. Bloch"
> <not-me@other.invalid> wrote:
>
>>On Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:458 -0400, Dave "Crash" Dummy wrote:
>>
>>> Joe Morris wrote:
>>>> <rfdjr1@optonline.net> wrote:
>>>>> "Panic" <wrong@cox.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>> I didn't like the way Control Panel displays. I found that it opened in
>>>>>> Category View and I liked the old way where you could view each item
>>>>>> separately. Near the upper right there is a little View By window. If it
>>>>>> says Category View click on the arrow head on the right and choose Large
>>>>>> Icons or Small Icons. Yay! Now it looks the way I'm used to and is
>>>>>> easier
>>>>>> for me to use.
>>>>
>>>>> Wow, thanks for that! I didn't like the way it opened up either.
>>>>
>>>> Has anyone found a way to make Windows 7 sort the control panel names in
>>>> columns instead of rows when in "icon" mode, other than by making the window
>>>> so narrow that it has only one column?
>>>
>>> No, but if you find a way, be sure to post it!
>>
>>Actually, you'd have to rewrite the program. How are you in C++?
>>
>>The reason it sorts in rows and not in columns is that it is *much* easier
>>to do that in code. And it is hardly unique to Windows or even to Windows
>>programs.
>>
>>I've always hated sorting in rows too...
>
> I used to do some (primarily VB5/VB6) programming back in the day, and
> I think this is one of those classic times where my ignorance didn't
> serve me well, or else it saved me, depending on your perspective. I
> didn't realize (until now) that sorting and displaying objects into
> multiple columns was supposed to be more difficult than sorting and
> displaying those same objects into multiple rows, so to me there was
> no difference in the level of effort between the two.
>
> Enumerate the set of objects, sort them as desired, get their
> dimensions, get the dimensions of the bounding container, print. If
> you're sorting by columns but printing in rows, the interim data
> collection will look a little funky, but the end result is as
> expected.
>
> I'm curious as to why this is programmatically difficult? I'm quite
> sure I didn't break any new ground.
Your paragraph starting "Enumerate..." answers your question (but please
see below).
In other words, I meant "difficult" in comparison to just printing the list
in order, n items per line. Of course that requires the difficult step of
figuring out the value of n, or at least figuring out where the line ends
I used difficult (by implication, in contrast to where I said "much
easier") to mean "it requires a moment of thought and a tiny bit of
effort", i.e., I was (intentionally) exaggerating for irony. Or is it
sardonicism? I can never tell.
I no longer quite remember (it's been a while), but I think on occasion I
have presented output from a program in a list sorted by column.
It's also even easier than you said above. Say you can compute that you
need four columns and that there are m items. Let k = (m+3)/4. The first
line gets items numbered 1, k+1, 2k+1, & 3k+1. Then print 2, k+2, 2k+2, &
3k+2. Rinse and repeat as necessary. Be careful on the last line. This is
in fact a restatement of what you said above, so of course it's not really
easier.
Note: I didn't debug the above
--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)