Article # 84, added by Geoworks, historical record
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Using Gstrings vs. bitmaps.
Question: To draw a small icon, is it faster to call drawing routines, or use a bitmap? If bitmaps are better, how do I create one? Answer: It depends on the type of bitmap (simple or huge/complex), the specific graphics routines you're using, and the dimensions of the graphic. There are other considerations besides speed, too -- large bitmaps generally take up a lot of space compared to gstrings. You could test out your specific case by timing how long it takes to draw, say, 100 copies of the graphic in your app. This should exaggerate any speed difference to where it's readily apparent which one is faster. It would be hard to guess in advance. All things considered, however, for a small icon, a bitmap is likely to be faster. Within certain limitations, you can create bitmaps using the Icon Editor or with the tools in the draw layer of GeoWrite. Both are included in the GEOS2XNC target software. To read more about bitmaps, start with section 23.7 in the Concepts book.