Timing auto-scrolling text

[cafeenman]

I'm trying to find the best way to auto-scroll text at a speed that's suitable for the user. I don't think using my own experience is the right way to go about it because of some of the same reasons you need an editor when you write - you think you know what you wrote and you skim it without actually reading it in real time.

So the problem is how long to delay text before the next thing is added.

What I landed on is letting the user enter a number in milliseconds (per character of text) that the text is displayed.

Also, important things have a built-in pause that happens no matter what.

So if you get a point then it pauses for a second PLUS whatever time the user has entered.

Because the text-length can vary and changes get made that make the text longer or shorter, whatever I think is an appropriate pause may be way too long or way too short for any given user.

In the below, you can ignore it all to the very end where this is implemented. I think it's a good system but if there's a better way I'd love to hear about it.

So how it works is that it's ms/character.

If the setting is 2 and the length of the text is 100 characters then it will pause for 200 ms before the next thing.

Make sense?

This is the code:

Public Sub AddPlayerMessage(ByRef TextToAdd As String, Optional ByRef AdditionalPauseInMS As Long = 0, Optional ByRef ShowInAuxWindow As Boolean = False)
Dim m_CallStacker As New cCallStacker
Dim nDieSides As Long

m_CallStacker.Add NAME & ".AddPlayerMessage(Public Sub)"

If fLoading Then Exit Sub

If SeeMoreDieRolls Then

  nDieSides = 10000

Else

  nDieSides = 2000

End If

If Int(Rnd * nDieSides) + 1 = 1 Then Flicker frmCallstackGame.txtMessage, Int(Rnd * 2000) + 1

If (ShowInAuxWindow Or fGamePaused) And frmAuxilliaryMessage.Visible Then

  frmAuxilliaryMessage.AddPlayerMessage TextToAdd

  Exit Sub

End If

If fGamePaused Then Exit Sub

With frmCallstackGame.txtMessage

  If Len(.Text) >= 30000 Then

    .Text = Right$(.Text, 500)

  End If

  .SelStart = Len(.Text)
  .SelText = vbCrLf & TextToAdd
  .SelStart = Len(.Text)

End With

If GameDelay + AdditionalPauseInMS > 0 Then

  Sleep (GameDelay * Len(TextToAdd)) + AdditionalPauseInMS

End If

End Sub

[cafeenman]

Some call examples:

The auxilliary window ignores timing. It displays stuff as fast as the system allows.

This really doesn't matter that much until there's a whole bunch of text. For example, the app is like an old text-based game where it gives you a prompt and a bunch of numbered choices. I want the user to have time to read all the choices before it scrolls.

In this case that matters because the user isn't actually playing. The game randomly chooses one of the choices and moves along. If I were writing a real game it would just stop until the user made a choice. But this isn't that.

AddPlayerMessage s, 0, True ' < - this goes to the aux window (true). Thus the 0 is irrelevant.  It could be 10000 and would be ignored.

AddPlayerMessage AddAsterisks("A Rival Developer Stole Your Code!"), 2000 ' < this goes to the main window with a pause of 2000 ms PLUS whatever time the user entered per character.