Optimizing Tab Control With AutoIT - performance

Question

So I wrote this to simulate a program that would have a start and stop feature, and has a tab design. Right now there is a tab that has a RichEdit object intended to be a running log.
As you can see, after we "start" the program I put just some milliseconds of sleep to simulate running instructions. I created a function to check for requests that would be called on a larger scale randomly throughout code to ping the GUI per say.
#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <GuiRichEdit.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
Global Const $h_numOfTabs = 2
Global Enum $H_TAB_1, $H_TAB_2, $H_TAB_END
Global $hGui, $h_logRichEdit, $iMsg, $h_tabs, $h_startButton, $h_stopButton
Example()
Func Example()
$hGui = GUICreate("Example (" & StringTrimRight(#ScriptName, StringLen(".exe")) & ")", 400, 550, -1, -1)
; ADD START AND STOP BUTTONS
$h_startButton = GUICtrlCreateButton( "Start", 50, 450 )
$h_stopButton = GUICtrlCreateButton( "Stop", 150, 450 )
$h_tabs = GUICtrlCreateTab( 5, 5, 390,375 )
; LOG TAB
GUICtrlCreateTabItem( "Log" )
$h_logRichEdit = _GUICtrlRichEdit_Create ( $hGui, "", 8, 30, 384, 347, BitOR( $ES_MULTILINE, $WS_VSCROLL, $ES_AUTOVSCROLL, $ES_READONLY ) )
; STATS TAB
GUICtrlCreateTabItem( "Stats" )
; Close TABS
GUICtrlCreateTabItem( "" )
GUISetState( #SW_SHOW ) ; initialize the gui
While True
CheckRequests()
WEnd
EndFunc ;==>Example
Func Start()
while true
Sleep(100)
CheckRequests()
WEnd
EndFunc
Func Stop()
EndFunc
Func CheckRequests()
$iMsg = GUIGetMsg()
while $iMsg <> 0
Select
Case $iMsg = $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
_GUICtrlRichEdit_Destroy($h_logRichEdit) ; needed unless script crashes
; GUIDelete() ; is OK too
Exit
Case $iMsg = $h_tabs
Switch GUICtrlRead( $h_tabs )
Case $H_TAB_1
ControlShow( $hGui, "", $h_logRichEdit )
Case Else
ControlHide( $hGui, "", $h_logRichEdit )
EndSwitch
Case $iMsg = $h_startButton
Start()
Case $iMsg = $h_stopButton
Stop()
EndSelect
$iMsg = GUIGetMsg()
WEnd
EndFunc
At about 500ms sleep, the lag when switching tabs is visible.
My question: On a larger scale, is this how we would handle/update things that are specific to a tab while running a larger program? If not, what would be a more efficient way of updating tab specific properties while running a larger overall program.
I have also seen a design recently where all the tabs and related components were their own GUI's but I am not sure the relevance of everything being its own GUI and if it pertains to this question.
Any help or clarification is greatly appreciated, I am new to AutoIT and trying to figure out some do's and dont's as well as efficiency.

Answer 1

#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>
#include <GuiRichEdit.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
Global Const $h_numOfTabs = 2
Global Enum $H_TAB_1, $H_TAB_2, $H_TAB_END
Global $hGui, $h_logRichEdit, $iMsg, $h_tabs, $h_startButton, $h_stopButton
Example()
Func Example()
$hGui = GUICreate("Example (" & StringTrimRight(#ScriptName, StringLen(".exe")) & ")", 400, 550, -1, -1)
; ADD START AND STOP BUTTONS
$h_startButton = GUICtrlCreateButton( "Start", 50, 450 )
$h_stopButton = GUICtrlCreateButton( "Stop", 150, 450 )
$h_tabs = GUICtrlCreateTab( 5, 5, 390,375 )
; LOG TAB
GUICtrlCreateTabItem( "Log" )
$h_logRichEdit = _GUICtrlRichEdit_Create ( $hGui, "", 8, 30, 384, 347, BitOR( $ES_MULTILINE, $WS_VSCROLL, $ES_AUTOVSCROLL, $ES_READONLY ) )
_GUICtrlRichEdit_AppendText($h_logRichEdit, "{\rtf {Showing \b1 Rich Text \b0}")
; STATS TAB
GUICtrlCreateTabItem( "Stats" )
; Close TABS
GUICtrlCreateTabItem( "" )
; Register Windows message.
GUIRegisterMsg($WM_NOTIFY, 'WM_NOTIFY')
GUISetState( #SW_SHOW ) ; initialize the gui
GuiMessageLoop()
EndFunc
Func GuiMessageLoop()
While 1
$iMsg = GUIGetMsg()
Switch $iMsg
Case $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
_GUICtrlRichEdit_Destroy($h_logRichEdit) ; needed unless script crashes
; GUIDelete() ; is OK too
Exit
Case $h_startButton
Start()
Case $h_stopButton
Stop()
EndSwitch
WEnd
EndFunc
Func Start()
ConsoleWrite('# Sleep' & #CRLF)
Sleep(5000)
ConsoleWrite('# Awake' & #CRLF)
EndFunc
Func Stop()
EndFunc
Func WM_NOTIFY($hWnd, $iMsg, $wParam, $lParam)
Local $iLoWord = _WinAPI_LoWord($lParam)
Local $iHiWord = _WinAPI_HiWord($lParam)
ConsoleWrite('- WM_NOTIFY' & ' ' & $iLoWord & ' ' & $iHiWord & #CRLF)
Switch GUICtrlRead( $h_tabs )
Case $H_TAB_1
ControlShow( $hGui, "", $h_logRichEdit )
Case Else
ControlHide( $hGui, "", $h_logRichEdit )
EndSwitch
Return $GUI_RUNDEFMSG
EndFunc
Try this example. It uses GuiRegisterMessage to capture
WM_NOTIFY Windows messages. WM_NOTIFY is not an ideal
message code for this, though have not found something
more suitable for only changing Tabs.
The code to hide and show the Rich Edit control has been
moved into the WM_NOTIFY function so that each time a
message is received, the Tab hide and show code executes.
ConsoleWrite is used to show what the events of interest
are doing during testing. If your editor has a output
console pane, then you may be able to view the writes to
the console pane.
If an event such as function Start takes a long time,
then multi-processing may help to allow the Gui to
remain responsive with the message loop.
Want a do don't, avoid (cyclic) recursive function
calls and avoid getting trapped in loops.
Additional References:
Windows Message Codes
AutoIt Wiki about Tabs