wxperl-users

Re: [wxperl-users] Fast SplashScreen Experience

[Mattia B. <mb...@ds...>]

> Hey, that's a great idea. I just ran it. Looks good.
> 
> Could you add some "padding" (controls or loops), so we can see how it
> acts with a larger app?
> With larger apps the current splash method requires a few  seconds to
> show on a slow machine, so your method would be great...if it doesn't
> cause side-effects we haven't noticed yet. But,  Mattia will probably
> be able to comment on that.
Hmm, how much time does it save on the low end machines you have?
Mine is P200/64MB/Linux/wxGTK ( the XServer is running on another machine ).
Normal app; results from "time perl -Mblib splash.pl", putting an exit 0 just
after the Wx::SplashScreen->new;
1.890 seconds

after mutilating Wx.pm so it loads much less than Graciliano's one
( it is not fully functional, I just wanted to know the max time saving I
  could obtain: it just loads Wx::App, Wx::Bitmap, Wx::SplashScreen, calls
  _boot_GDI and _boot_Constant )
1.290 seconds
gain: ~600 msec

so we will be gaining less than 33% ( notice that in a real scenario I'll
need to load at least ( part of ) Wx::Event -> less time saving ).
Is that worth the additional code complication? ( <- this is not
                                                  rhetorical, BTW...)

Puzzled
Mattia

P.S.: splash.pl and Wx.pm attached for reference; some trivial modification
      to Bitmap.pm and SplashScreen.pm are needed for that to work

Re: [wxperl-users] Fast SplashScreen Experience

[Marcus <ma...@wo...>]

Mattia wrote:
>...so we will be gaining less than 33% ( notice that in a real scenario I'll
need to load at least ( part of ) Wx::Event -> less time saving ).
>Is that worth the additional code complication? ( <- this is not rhetorical, BTW...)

Mattia, have you looked at Graciliano's second version?

The new one is really simple and much faster. I'd like to test it in a real application, but the splash is instantaneous < 1 second on a P1 400 MHz machine in the demo. The currennt wxPerl splash speed is 2 - 3 seconds, and it may get longer with a larger app?

Since this new version does not mess with Wx.pm I think it's worth a try incorporating it into wxPerl. May need more tweaking though. Graciliano is turning it into a module.

General notes:
When I start IE, Opera or other large apps they require a long startup so that I often wonder if they are launching okay. If we can do better than the others by showing the user an instant splash screen, then why not?

Of course it's primarily psychological when the apps actually take the same amount of time to load, but that's the way we humans are. We like to see a reaction and know what's happening.

Speed of loading and a smooth run is what people look for when evaluating software. That's what I have gleaned from user feedback and I think wxPerl apps could easily rival VB and similar environments if we produce some useful apps as examples.

I plan on writing down how to make a wxPerl app suit the usual desktop user. Topics would be:

- Tuning loading time
- Splash
- Creating an exe
- Installers (packaging)

Marcus

Re: [wxperl-users] Fast SplashScreen Experience

[Mattia B. <mb...@ds...>]

> Mattia wrote:
> >...so we will be gaining less than 33% ( notice that in a real scenario I'll
> need to load at least ( part of ) Wx::Event -> less time saving ).
> >Is that worth the additional code complication? ( <- this is not rhetorical, BTW...)
> 
> Mattia, have you looked at Graciliano's second version?
Yes
> The new one is really simple and much faster. I'd like to test it
> in a real application, but the splash is instantaneous < 1 second on a
> P1 400 MHz machine in the demo. The currennt wxPerl splash speed is 2 - 3
> seconds, and it may get longer with a larger app?
> 
> Since this new version does not mess with Wx.pm I think it's worth a try
                                            ^^^^^
                                            this is the real reson I like it...
> incorporating it into wxPerl. May need more tweaking though. Graciliano
> is turning it into a module.
I'm not that excited about incorporating it ( I'd like to keep the core
as small as possible ), but I can be convinced otherwise, of course.

> General notes:
> When I start IE, Opera or other large apps they require a long startup so
> that I often wonder if they are launching okay. If we can do better than
> the others by showing the user an instant splash screen, then why not?
> 
> Of course it's primarily psychological when the apps actually take the
> same amount of time to load, but that's the way we humans are. We like to
> see a reaction and know what's happening.
I know, but I was arguing that a 33% ( in my tests ) speedup was not worth
the massive code contortion of the first version. The last version does
not have this problem.

> Speed of loading and a smooth run is what people look for when evaluating software. That's what I have gleaned from user feedback and I think wxPerl apps could easily rival VB and similar environments if we produce some useful apps as examples.
> 
> I plan on writing down how to make a wxPerl app suit the usual
> desktop user. Topics would be:
> 
> - Tuning loading time
> - Splash
> - Creating an exe
> - Installers (packaging)
This would be Really Nice.

Regards
Mattia