It's not quite what I was after. Thank you though for posting the suggestion.
I actually did try the fopen, looped fread, fclose option and my results were:
for a file 140000 lines long:- took 13min 50 seconds
which is slower than the loadbuf: 9 min 46 seconds.
I don't need to process the text, just load it up.
Interestingly, loadbuf into a custom @window was instant. no waiting whatsoever. However I found the vertical sidebar not really functioning properly. Only could scroll down and view a portion of the file.
The lines, were all definately there though as I could see how many lines and echo lines at end of file using //echo -a $line(@name,N,T)
In the fopen etc option - I took the liberty of adding a simple progress bar to see how it was performing and I could see the process steadily slow down. So I presume it's a memory thing having to perform did -a repeatedly.
I just don't understand how loadbuf into a custom window versus loadbuf into dialog can give such different results.
If anyones found a solution that doesn't involve dll's I'm very keen to hear from them.
