How to override an inherited property from RichTextBox?

Question

I wrote a custom control in C# that inherits from the RichTextBox. The purpose of this control is to contain all improvements and changes, such as modified line numbering and having the control repaint itself only when it should.

Yesterday, I noticed memory spikes (and often, OOM exceptions) when accessing the Lines property of this control (there are 600,000+ lines in the control at times). I coded workarounds that no longer involve it, but I would still like to completely remove it so people who use my control in the future do not use it.

The Lines property is System.Windows.Forms.TextBoxBase.Lines. Ideally, I'd like the string[] for this property to never be touched; when I load text in the control, I do NOT want the control to do anything to fill this lines property (because it's completely pointless and is consuming some time and resources).

Anyone have any ideas?

EDIT: I tried

        public override string[] Lines
        {
            get { return null; }
            set { ; } // do nothing
        }

But VS says "cannot override inherited member System.Windows.Forms.TextBoxBase.Lines.get because it is not marked virtual, abstract, or override.

So it looks like I can't override or remove it. I think the RichTextBox is setting the property because it is filled after change the text. Is there a way for me to capture and handle that message?

Answer 1

Have you tried to shadow the property?

public new string[] Lines
{
   get { throw new Exception("Not supported"); }
   set { throw new Exception("Not supported"); }
}

Answer 2

Hmya, it is only going to slow down a decent programmer for no more than 5 minutes:

string[] lines = ((RichTextBox)myEditor1).Lines;

which will blow just as hard. There isn't much point in trying to prevent usage of your class that can be used anyway. The Lines property ought to be useful to anybody that uses your editor, it covers the very basic need to be able to retrieve the text that was edited. Don't throw out the baby with the bath water.

The real problem here is that RTB uses so much unmanaged memory to store the text, leaving little left for the garbage collected heap. It gets really slow too once you pump thousands of lines into it. No component should ever be allowed to swallow up half of all available memory. Either limit the number of lines you allow to edit or use a better editor, like ScintillaNET.

It is also rather important to be a pragmatic programmer. Beyond hiding a property needlessly. 600,000 lines in a text box is an enormous number. There a 3/4 million words in the Bible, you are displaying 6 copies of the Bible in your text box. No sane human is ever going to read that, they'll just dislike your program intensely. Not just because it is impossible to use effectively but also because it is a crash bucket.