Improving XY's responsiveness

Orson · Post by **Orson** » 06 Jun 2007 20:10

Well, I wonder if my situation is unique or at least very unusual. I'm curious about whether other XY users who regularly work with network drives experience the same thing as I do: that Auto-Refresh makes a big, very noticeable difference in the speed of displaying folders.

I understand that where I work we either have transitioned or are transitioning to UNC network storage vs. fixed drive letters. Yet I don't see how that would affect the speed....... just trying to add some more info.

JustinF · Post by **JustinF** » 06 Jun 2007 21:01

Orson wrote:Well, I wonder if my situation is unique or at least very unusual. I'm curious about whether other XY users who regularly work with network drives experience the same thing as I do: that Auto-Refresh makes a big, very noticeable difference in the speed of displaying folders.

Ok, I just turned on auto-refresh on network folders and I, too, see a big difference in listing out the directory contents.

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 06 Jun 2007 21:19

Orson wrote:Well, I wonder if my situation is unique or at least very unusual. I'm curious about whether other XY users who regularly work with network drives experience the same thing as I do: that Auto-Refresh makes a big, very noticeable difference in the speed of displaying folders.

I use network drives, but not mapped, only with UNC paths. But I go there and browse around using XY and the speed is pretty damn good. And by that I mean pretty much the same as with my local drives

Relating to this, I have:
Config/General
- Check existence of subfolders in tree ON, In network locations as well OFF
Config/Advanced
- Auto-Refresh ON, In network locations as well OFF
- Use generic icons ON, But only in network locations ON

And yes, turning Auto-Refresh/In network locations as well ON does add a ~2sec delay when changing location on network drive (before updating the List, Tree/Tabs state have been updated already), even goign from/to an empty folder.

I have no idea how it works, but do you "set" the auto-watching-thingy before updating the List?? Maybe it does take a little longer than on local location... Because the slow-down does occur even when going to a network location from a local one, so it definately occurs when going to a network location, and it's nothing to do with the content (since only the auto-refresh setting is changed).

Anyways, isn't that a known fact that auto-refresh on network locations will slow down browsing? Hence the possibility to have it enabled only for local locations?

Post by **admin** » 06 Jun 2007 21:31

jacky wrote:Anyways, isn't that a known fact that auto-refresh on network locations will slow down browsing? Hence the possibility to have it enabled only for local locations?

It is. I just would like to find out why.

On 0012 I did stop watching before filling the list, and restarted the watch (on the new location) after the list was filled. Orson's result: no difference! Still slow!

This is so crazy that I started getting curious...

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 06 Jun 2007 21:57

admin wrote:On 0012 I did stop watching before filling the list, and restarted the watch (on the new location) after the list was filled. Orson's result: no difference! Still slow! This is so crazy that I started getting curious...

ok. Well with 0015 the delay still is added before the list is filled. When do you update the statusbar? To me, in order it goes:
- update Tree, Tabs, Statusbar (instantly)
- there's a delay here
- and List is being filled

Note that the statusbar update means the text on sections, the icon is done at the same time than List is filled, so after the delay. Scrollbar (dis/)appear after the delay as well.

Post by **admin** » 06 Jun 2007 22:31

jacky wrote:
admin wrote:On 0012 I did stop watching before filling the list, and restarted the watch (on the new location) after the list was filled. Orson's result: no difference! Still slow! This is so crazy that I started getting curious...
ok. Well with 0015 the delay still is added before the list is filled. When do you update the statusbar? To me, in order it goes:
- update Tree, Tabs, Statusbar (instantly)
- there's a delay here
- and List is being filled

Note that the statusbar update means the text on sections, the icon is done at the same time than List is filled, so after the delay. Scrollbar (dis/)appear after the delay as well.

Interesting. I'll look into that little gap between statusbar and list...

BTW: "update Tree" ? I thought we are talking about clicking a tree node -- there is no update necessary. So, apparently you travel another route, e.g. Favorites or so? So even when jumping to a currently not visible (not yet expanded) tree folder (means: the tree has to work = browse the disk) the tree reacts instantly (on network drive, AR on)?? This is a thriller... who's responsible for the delay?

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 06 Jun 2007 22:49

admin wrote:BTW: "update Tree" ? I thought we are talking about clicking a tree node -- there is no update necessary. So, apparently you travel another route, e.g. Favorites or so? So even when jumping to a currently not visible (not yet expanded) tree folder (means: the tree has to work = browse the disk) the tree reacts instantly (on network drive, AR on)?? This is a thriller... who's responsible for the delay?

Well, I said "update Tree" cause I did try with clicking the Tree, but also using Catalog to jump from a local drive to a network location (actually, to get there I used a favorite)

Tree did update instantly, but remember that I do have Check existence of subfolders in tree In network locations as well OFF, so it didn't had to do a lot there. Plus, I already went to that place so subfolders were actually already present, location was expanded. (But collapsing it would have it expanded as fast, yet again, no recursive loop for subfolders and and already it been browsed/cached)
So "Update Tree" might only meant scrolling it down, but I thought I'd mention it anyways...

Post by **admin** » 07 Jun 2007 07:31

jacky wrote:When do you update the statusbar? To me, in order it goes:
- update Tree, Tabs, Statusbar (instantly)
- there's a delay here
- and List is being filled

Note that the statusbar update means the text on sections, the icon is done at the same time than List is filled, so after the delay.

That's strange because according to my code the list is filled, painted, and refreshed before the statusbar is updated!

Now you say the statusbar is already filled with new information while the list is still showing the old contents, right?

jacky · Post by **jacky** » 07 Jun 2007 15:56

admin wrote:That's strange because according to my code the list is filled, painted, and refreshed before the statusbar is updated! Now you say the statusbar is already filled with new information while the list is still showing the old contents, right?

With exception for the icon on 3rd section, yes the statusbar is updated while List still shows the old content.