218975 - Painfully slow delay between keystrokes when typing

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(MailNews Core :: Composition, defect)

Description

[Robert La Ferla]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.5b) Gecko/20030911
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.5b) Gecko/20030911

This problem happens very frequently but not always.  When it occurs, it is
painfully slow to type in the mail compose window.  Sometimes in the subject or
header fields but usually in the main message body.  There is a full 1 second
delay between e-a-c-h  c-h-a-r-a-c-t-e-r  t-y-p-e-d.  You get the point...

PLEASE FIX THIS.


Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Open new compose window in Messenger
2.  Type a paragraph in the main message body.
3.

Actual Results:  
Usually works fine but sometimes (and with regularity), it is painfully slow to
type.


Expected Results:  
Typing should be a breeze.

Comment 1

[Christof Paul]

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.5b) Gecko/20030912
Build ID: 2003091209

I can confirm that problem using the latest trunk. I have the same delay (~1
second) when typing characters in the main message body.

Comment 2

[Mark Levitt]

I have noticed the same problem when composing an e-mail message with Mozilla mail. 

After about three or four lines of rapid typing, characters do not appear until
a .5 second delay or so. 


This is with release 1.5 on Windows 2000. 

Comment 3

[Mark Levitt]

I should add that I've tried the Thunderbird .3 release and noticed the same
behavior. 

Comment 4

[Jim]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.6b) Gecko/20031114
AMD 450MHz  128MB RAM

I notice some "jerky" character painting and very high cpu usage when typing in
the mail compose window.  The "jerky" behavior is such that when you type fast
there will be a small pause, then the characters will catch up with the typing.
 This occures about once every two seconds.  

Also the CPU usage goes up very high (~75%) when typing fast.  If I hold a key
down an let it repeat the CPU usage will go to 99-100%.  This is reproducable
always.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I have noticed this for a long time and it is quite annoying.  I can't say when
it started. 

My experience is it gets progressively slower as I have more composition windows
open.  And, to the extent that it is sometimes worse than others, it is somewhat
unpredictable.  

I don't know that it is CPU related, but since I upgraded a couple days ago from
an AMD 1600+ to a 2400+ it's not as perceptible.  But there is still a
consistent slight lag of characters appearing behind my typing.  I can type much
faster in MS-Word.  Pure eyeball, CPU usage for MS-Word looks to be about 20-30%
less than mozilla's when holding down a single character for a few seconds. (I
can only drive the CPU to 14% with word, versus 18-19% with moz.

Some interesting behavior can be driven with holding down a key.  For example,
on the first line of a new message I hold the key down, it goes to abou 15% and
steadily climbs to the low 20s, then suddenly spikes to 34-35%.  hit the enter
key a couple times and hold a key down again and I can't drive it over 14% CPU.
  Not only that, but it seems like if I go back to normal typing, that there is
not as much of lag between typing and display of characters.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6a) Gecko/20031030  Build
2003110115 (I have no clue why it says Geck/20031030)

Comment 6

[Andy Ozment]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113

Windows XP SP1
P4 1.6GHz
640 MB RAM

I can replicate this behaviour in Composer and Browser as well, so I assume it
is with the text engine that underlies all of the Mozilla components.

I have experienced this behaviour since at least Mozilla 1.3. It also seems
likely that these bugs are all the same:
<http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=218975> 218975
<http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=218748> 218748
<http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=172053> 172053
<http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=182150> 182150 (This
one is Mac OSX, may be unrelated)

I think that this bug is the most well documented of that four:
<http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=218975> 218975

Here is how I reproduce the problem:
1. Open a compose window:
  CPU usage: 1%
  Available Mem: 400 MB

2. Start typing in the compose window. I hit keys as fast as I can, repetitively
(not typing words). No matter how fast I type, the text onscreen keeps up with
the speed at which I am typing. However, the CPU usage spikes to 100%. Memory
usage is unchanged.

3. Wait for the CPU usage to return to 1%.

4.a. Start typing again. Now the text appears on the compose window at a _much_
slower rate than before. The text in the compose window lags my typing by a
significant amount.

4.b. Alternatively, move the cursor to the middle of previously written text.
Now if I start typing, the text in the compose window is _really_ slow. It
definitely lags my typing. 

Note that this problem is definitely Mozilla specific. In MS Wordpad or MS Word
I cannot get the CPU usage to rise above 50% and the text onscreen always keeps
up with my typing, no matter how fast I hit keys.

Comment 7

[Barbara]

This occurs on all my Windows XP PC's as well. It also happens in user forums. I have gone back to older version on this laptop and will likely do so on others, it's just too annoying to leave. 

Comment 8

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to comment #7)
> This occurs on all my Windows XP PC's as well. It also happens in user forums.
> I have gone back to older version on this laptop and will likely do so on
> others, it's just too annoying to leave. 

Barbara, you are in the wrong product. This bug is about mail composition in Seamonkey suite.

Comment 9

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

probably all dups
bug 218748
bug 172053
bug 182150

Comment 10

[Christof Paul]

Wyne asked me to comment the bug.

I actually using Thunderbird as mail client.
I guess the problem was fixed in a newer trunk version. As I remember the bug was not reproduceable!

I think we can close this bug after 3 years! ;-)

Comment 11

[Jim]

On Thunderbird version 3 alpha 1 (20060828) I was not able to reproduce this bug.

Comment 12

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

WFM, thanks for the comments.