[DrJava] Speed Is An Issue

[Peter C. <cen...@ri...>]

I know this may not be a popular suggestion, but could we make 
it a feature/improvement project to speed up the main editor?  
Right now speed is the primary reason why I cannot use Dr. Java 
for real programming.  According to several online tests, I type 
at approximately 60 wpm.  This is certainly not expert typing 
performance by clerical standards, but it is above average.  I 
believe it is reasonable to expect Dr. Java to be able to keep 
up with this rate of input.  Unfortunately, I can type "public 
static int" in less time than it takes Dr. Java to display 
"public static" with proper coloring.  This is simply 
unacceptable.  Keep in mind that this is running on a reasonably 
up to date 500 MHz machine with all Swing acceleration features 
turned on.

For comparison, I played with various other Java text 
environments.  The plain-vanilla text box in MRJAppBuilder had 
no trouble keeping up with me.  BlueJ will fall behind if I 
pound arbitrary characters, and it is clear that some lag is 
occurring, but I was not able to produce any "stutter" in my 
text input.  By the time I raised my finger from the last letter 
of a word, BlueJ had always rendered that word.  I also played 
with JBuilder 6.  It was even more responsive.  Even pounding 
random keys as fast as I could manage, JBuilder still produced 
virtually instant response.  Both of the last two examples 
perform fairly complex syntax coloring.  I think that if they 
can do this, we can too.

--
Peter Centgraf
Lovett College
Rice University
Houston, TX