/**************************************************************************** ** ** Copyright (C) 2010 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. ** ** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:FDL$ ** 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 Free Documentation License ** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free ** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software ** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of this ** file. ** ** 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. */