Scrolling, Typing, & Slowness = Brushed Metal?

[majorsl]

I've been trying to investigate the slowness problems people have been reporting. I am one of them. Here is a REAL headscratcher:

I'm using the brushed metal theme. All this really does is check off a box in Interface Builder called "Textured Window."

I downloaded the 4/16 build and ran it "as is." I had NO PROBLEMS. Everything was speedy as heck.

I opened this copy and modified the BrowserWindow.nib file and only checked-off the "textured window" option, saved my changes, and opened again. Everything was now SLOW as heck.

I then reversed what I did, putting Camino back to normal. Speedy again!

I want to submit this as a bug BADLY, but since Camino (unmodified) runs just fine, I doubt it will be looked into as it is not intended to have a brushed metal interface.

I may post the above to the mailing list as an aside, just to see the response....

-Steve

[wtmcgee]

when you essentially hack a program, unexpected results will occur.

i highly doubt the devs will take any bug submission related to that seriously. they have more legit fish to fry.

[majorsl]

when you essentially hack a program, unexpected results will occur.

i highly doubt the devs will take any bug submission related to that seriously. they have more legit fish to fry.

I don't think that they will either. My message indicated that I wanted to file a bug report, not that I did. And I won't.

[majorsl]

Well, just a followup...

If I remove the Google Search bar from the Toolbar I can use the brushed metal theme with no slow down at all. Does anyone else with the problem want to confirm or deny that?

[alsa]

I would either deny or confirm that except I gave up on the nightlies and am using the most stable version 0.7 from March 7 - the one that does not have the Google tool bar as I don't need it - I am using a menubar Google search program called Searchling 1.1.

I AM using the Latest brushed metal theme from Jon in the UK and an icon theme called Molokini with ChimerIcon. No slow down with 0.7... I guess I am waiting for 0.8

[jonhicks]

Well, I have to say, you're right. Removing the Google Search bar speeds everything up immensely. Particularly, typing in form fields!

[jonhicks]

Trying out the latest nightly, the slow typing and scrolling is much improved - still not tip top, but definitely a lot better. Without the google search bar, everything seems to be at normal speed. Maybe this will get better still as we get nearer a version 8? - whenever that may be.

Camino 7's release notes do mention that 'Camino is more compatible with the "Metallizer" haxie now'. I'd like to think that although adding a brushed metal theme is a hack, its something that might get supported?

[KingofHearts]

Do i need OS 10.2 to do Brushed Metal in Camino? Whatever i try the theme won't work...

[pizzach]

well, the metal haxie is for 10.2. Personally, if this many people are wanting the metal skin and are complaining about functionality, wouldn't you think an open source project would respond? I too have a feeling that it will become a "feature"

[jonhicks]

As pizzach says, you need 10.2 or above. I don't know of any other way to get it to work in 10.1+.

I'd be over the moon if the devs found time to give brushed metal as an option - but realistically, I guess they have bigger fish to fry. At least the slowness doesn't seem as bad as it was - maybe it will improve with time.

[pizzach]

Well, here's hopin' that it will be in 2.0 anyway. Camino is supposed to be Mac OS X like, and perhaps by then, the definition from camino will be that it is metalisized

[japser]

I just found out why the google toolbar item is causing scroll slownes.

First of all i'd like to let everybody know that the brushed metal interface is a much more GPU intensive theme than the regular Aqua so in anny case any brushed metal app will feel slower than an aqua app. Why? Wel because of the bevels on the edges and beacuse of the alpha channel that is used to create te dark/light/dark effect.

But that's not what this post is about. It seems the googlebar is constantly redrawn by Quartz when anything is changed in the html view. Even if you type a single letter the entire googlebar is redrwan. Don't ask me why, camino just does. I dropped a note of this on bugzilla. Now you can emagine what happens when you start scrolling, not only has the html have to be rerendered and redrawn but also the google bar. so it makes sence that removing the google bar speeds up scrolling!

You can test this yourself by using the Quartz Debug application Apple provides with the developer CD. Make sure you have "flash screen updates" and "no delay after flash" turned on to see what I'm talking about. You will notice the google bar flashing yellow all the time.

[jonhicks]

Thats really interesting. It's good to know that there is a reason, and that it might be attended to as a bug (rather than an ignored "Hey! When I hack your browser, it slows down - sort it out!" request )

[japser]

And official bug has been filed:
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=213312

[mrmister]

This happens only when using brushed metal, right?