Closed Bug 152464 Opened 22 years ago Closed 21 years ago

Kill the splash-screen.

Categories

(Camino Graveyard :: General, enhancement)

Product:
Camino Graveyard
Component:
General
Platform:
PowerPC
macOS
Type:
enhancement
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
VERIFIED FIXED
Milestone:
Future

People

(Reporter: cmiller, Assigned: mikepinkerton)

Details

Attachments

(3 files)

Smaller and less obtrusive splash screen
116.45 KB, image/tiff
Details
Happy, fun, new, vertical splash screen.
47.13 KB, image/jpeg
Details
Patch to add preference to show/hide splashscreen on startup
636 bytes, patch
Details | Diff | Splinter Review
OS X has a built-in mechanism for flagging applications that are in the process of being launched (the bouncing dock icon). As a result, all the splash-screen becomes is a huge unsightly block of graphics that gets in the way of what I'm doing while I wait for Chimera to open. It's annoying, it performs no useful function, it should go.
I second this. At least make it a heckuva lot smaller. At 1024x768 it takes of like a third of the screen.
Severity: normal → enhancement
I agree it should be smaller, but I think it should stay. Startup isn't yet quick enough to not have one (and some users run with a hidden dock).
If it is to stay, I would like to have it display launch process or something. A status bar, or even just a line of text would be nice.
If the splash were to display status, a status bar would be better than status text. However, since this is supposed to be a simple app...
(Make that *progress* bar, not status bar.)
I agree it should stay, but many apps (GraphicConverter comes to mind offhand) have a preference to not show a splash screen. It should be on by default. Of course, many people would insist that this preference isn't important enough to warrant taking up space in the UI, but perhaps someone could throw it in prefs.js? The behavior should be the same across platforms. Currently on Linux, the splash screen is off unless you specify -splash. I think it should be on unless you specify -nosplash or you set your preferences to disable it.
Make it... - smaller. Mozilla's splash size is quite reasonable. Chimera's is huge. - have a spinning arrows control in it to let the user know it's doing something. No status text. - go away if the user sets a "Don't show splash screen" preference.
When changing the splash screen in Contents/Resources/splash.tif to a 1x1 pixel, load times are halved. Loading the splash screen seems to be one of the main obstacles on my TiBook 550Mhz. I'm all for making this a hidden option in prefs.js -- something for the power users.
Frederik, how did you do those time measurements? Were they both after a machine restart (ie, were they both cold starts)? Can we see the actual numbers in milliseconds?
A modified version of the current splash screen. Size is about 42 percent of the original. I scaled the various elements down individually --for instance, the icon is only 25 % smaller than in the original image, while the white background is greatly reduced.
Lauri, since this bug is about either eliminating the splash screen or providing an option to disable it, you should file another bug about substituting a smaller version.
None of the iApps show a splash screen. iPhoto takes 5 seconds longer to startup than Chimera 0.4 on my machine. I'm voting "splash screens are so 1994."
Agreed, that huge splash screen is a pointless and annoying waste of resources. Especially when it pops up over other applications I'm trying to use while I launch Chimera. There should at least be an option to disable it.
The size of the splash screen has been reduced.
I guess my question is: what purpose does a splash-screen actually serve? Since the OS takes care of informing the user that an app is launching, does it do any more than inform the user of the application's name and version? If not, the question becomes: is a splash-screen necessary to convey that information, or does the Menu bar and About box already serve that purpose adequately? If it isn't doing anything to enhance the user experience, then it should probably go.
It used to be that you'd load a spash screen before you started your application init code, so the user could see that something was going on right away. When apps took half a minute or more to load, this made alot of sense - there really wasn't any other good way to know that the app was making progress loading. I rememember thinking splash screens were a great idea when they first started showing up. I was using a Mac IIvx and a 486/25 at the time. My only point is that apps launch really quickly now, so at this point they're more window dressing than anything else. As others mentioned, the dock handles launch status now. If the chimera splash screen is significantly dragging down load speed, it's having the opposite effect as it ought to.
Why not only display the splash screen when Chimera is in front? That would show the waiting user how far Chimera has loaded all components etc. and the busy user would not be annoyed by the window.
I'm voting for this primarily because I agree with the original comment that OS X does provide a way for users to know the application is launching by bouncing the dock icon. There is even an alternate method of notification of the user disables bouncing in the system Preferences; the dock will flash the corresponding triangle to the application. The argument that some users have a hidden dock seems irrelevant to me; people who do this still know the dock provides this notification and they can call it up to check the progress if they feel launching is taking too long.
So what do you prepose the best option would be? Just putting a check box in a general preference pane called, "Disable splash screen"? Or do you think Robert Wünsch is on to something? (see his comment #17)
Ideally, I'd suggest just removing it. As comment #12 notes, none of the iApps use a splash screen, and I'd like to leave it as a relic of older OSes. OS X provides a way of knowing that an application is launching, i.e. the dock. If the problem is that Chimera takes too long to launch, then that should be make a blocker to this issue with a clear goal, something like "When Chimera consistently takes less than _ seconds to launch, we'll remove the splash screen." If anyone really misses it they can select the About window. :) That said, in the meantime if we must have a splash screen, then comment #17 makes obvious sense. I can then launch Chimera, switch to another app, and continue to work without being bothered by it. I really don't think adding another preference for this makes sense, as I understand one of the goals here is to not have dozens of unnecessary preferences. Instead, I believe that splash screens should be deprecated for OS X in general.
If an application takes more than a couple seconds to launch, I think a splash screen is still a helpful visual cue that something is actually going on (in addition to the bouncing icon). Adobe's apps still have splash screens, so does Internet Explorer. Personally, I don't mind a bit of eye candy while I'm waiting, especially if it's as well done as Chimera's. Not all of us have G4s after all. That said, I wouldn't mind if it was eliminated altogether once launch time is negligible. I also think the prefs.js option is a good idea. Having a UI pref would be overkill, IMO.
Here are some launch time data points from a 350MHz G3 powerbook, probably a useful low-end for modern-ish macs: uncached: iTunes: 6s Chimera: 19s Chimera (1px splash): 18s iPhoto: 17s cached (2nd load): iTunes: 4s Chimera: 7s Chimera (1px splash): 6s iPhoto: 11s this is on Chimera-0.5 on Jag. Anybody have a dual gig to sadden me? ;) Point being, it's a 1 second difference now, even on this slow machine. I notice Frederik's numbers are pre-Jag, pre-0.5, pre-smaller-splash-screen, etc. So, it's just a correctness issue at this point.
I agree, the splash screen is unnecessary. I think Jon Hall summarized it well. Eye candy isn't necessary when the whole app is beautiful. The launch time for chimera is just fine as is; there's nothing to cover up. re preferences there's really no need for it. This is a decision that is best made by the developer for the users.
Does anyone like this?
Sorry, no. Please don't use bugzilla as a forum for the discussion of splash screens.
Do we really want an app that doesn't let you know whether or not it is actually launching? An app that hangs on launch looks the same in the Dock as an app that's launching without a splash screen (ie. the triangle under its Dock tile pulsates). I feel this would be counterintuitive and make the app launching seem even longer, not shorter, since the user would have no visual cue as to what's happening. This is similar to the "mousing is quicker than keyboard shortcuts" paradox. Since the user doesn't have anything interesting to look at or do, the time spent on not doing anything feels longer. iPhoto was mentioned in comment 12, and I think it's an app that sums this up quite nicely. Is it doing something? Why isn't the main window visible yet? Did it crash? I recommend WONTFIX.
Lauri: I think the point is that most users *do* have something better to do than look at a big piece of eye candy while chimera launches. I usually have more than one app open, and would like to continue to use them without a big useless resource wasting splash screen poping up in my way after launching chimera, especially when I launch it via a GetURL event from another app like Mail.app. At the very least there *needs* to be a way in the prefs.js and users.js files to disable the splash screen, even if the developers don't feel like making it a GUI prefrence. The current workarround of using a OS bug to kill the splash screen by replacing splash.tif with a file it can't display (text for instance), is not acceptable as the only way to get rid of this misfeature.
Summary: [RFE] Kill the splash-screen. → Kill the splash-screen.
You could put it in a window or panel, so that the user could minimize the splash screen.
My opinion is to have the user decide to show the splash screen or not. This patch adds the chimera.showsplashscreen boolean preference. Defaults to true.
One could also listen for a keypress or a click in the splash screen would hide it. That would allow the user to continue working while Chimera is launching.
what is the current status on this?
we're loading gecko for the most part, we aren't processing events to allow the click to be processed. i don't really see the fuss, but will keep this open for discussion.
Assignee: saari → pinkerton
Target Milestone: --- → Future
I think we should kill the splash screen for these reasons: 1. Killing the splash screen should provide a launch-time improvement. 2. The new standard for Mac OS X applications is NO splash screen. Check out the iApps. 3. The splash screen is annoying because it gets in your way if you want to work while Camino loads. Adding an option to turn it off just makes it existence even more cumbersome. 4. The splash screen is eventually going to be done away with anyway. Just do it now and reap the benefits. I bet nobody will miss it.
i don't recall any substantive proof that the splash screen slows down startup. anyone want to try some test timing runs?
I'd say that testing whether or not you actually get a startup performance gain is not necessary. There is only one possible test result and a startup time improvement is not the primary reason for removing the splash screen anyway. You have to move some memory around and display the startup screen. That requires work, so logically, any testing could only have a single outcome - a decrease in startup time. The only question is whether or not its noticeable, which is a wishy-washy question since you need to specify who it is or isn't noticeable to. It is more likely to be noticeable for my brother on beige 233 MHz G3 than it is for me on a 667 G4, and even less noticeable for those lucky bastards with G5s. Since the splash screen has no functional purpose on Mac OS X its a waste of time, and furthermore its actually annoying to some people like me. In order of importance, here is a new list of reasons why we should remove the splash screen: 1. Its annoying if you're trying to work while Camino is launching. 2. Removing it will make Camino comply with standard Mac OS X GUI practice. 3. Its totally useless. If it had ANY use, then why aren't we worried about making sure it stays up long enough on dual G5 systems for the user to "use" it? 4. Some users might get a noticeable speed boost, everyone else will definitely get a minor one. In every case a startup time improvement MUST logically be a result.
Mike I think it's pretty interesting to remove the splash screen primairly because it will save us 132k on application size. And the splash screen doesn't serve any special purpose other than eyecandy.
killed.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 21 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
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