"Other better ways to determine the closest line to a point"?

Reading on my iPad, so I can’t give you a page number; however, right after the declaration of the “stride” method, it is noted that “There are other, better ways to determine the closest line to a point…” Anyone know what these better methods are? Is it just calculating the distance between the point and all lines using geometry or is there a more general approach for calculating the distance between a point and an object?