GUI slowness

The title says it all: I want to get more attention about the slow updating/reacting GUI of Xojo.
Even when disabling the animations in the preferences it is still slow.

With a medium to large projects the overall reaction/updating/refreshing of the GUI is incredible and frustrating slow:

  • Selecting items is slow. Clicking on a control and moving the mouse selects another control instead (because of the slow reaction time etc…)
  • Dragging items is slow and painful when there are a lot of controls on a window.

I also did a quick test with Retinizer. So Xojo can be used with Retina sharpness. Now, in this case the Xojo GUI is just unusable and lagging with everything you do. I know Xojo has other issues when Retina is enabled but I just wanted to test the screen update.

My proposal:
I still think the graphical blingbling is causing the slowdown to some degree. Maybe Thom can add a preference to remove the shadow borders/effects?
At least let us play with a Xojo version without the shadow effects … I bet a lot will find the GUI much faster/snappier. (I know Thom says it isn’t though…)

Consider this please…

TIA

If you want this seriously considered a feedback report is something you should submit

<https://xojo.com/issue/28302>

It is extremely painful to move controls and manipulate the GUI. To me a feedback report should not have been necessary, since I would think the problem would be blatantly obvious to the folks at Xojo.

I am using Xojo Release 2 on a Mac Pro 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon with 10 GB Ram. I would think that would be enough.

Does anyone know how to speed this thing up, because I am about ready to just go back to an earlier RB version?

Turn animation off. That will help. But even with that I’ve run into issues on one of my very large projects.

Hi Bob,

I did turn it off, but it really did not help too much. Its still extremely slow and tedious.

Add that to my list of rants at http://www.bkeeneybriefs.com/2013/07/why-i-hate-the-xojo-navigator/ :slight_smile:

That was a good review Bob. I hope your opinions will reach the developers of Xojo. I have a pretty big project and I may have to write it in RB and later compile it with Xojo assuming that will not screw things up.

I really hope they fix the speed issues. As we are all aware of, developing apps is a time consuming process, and one that takes a considerable amount of concentration. That concentration is disrupted when you have to work in a slow, lagging GUI with controls moving in a jerky motion around the screen.

A couple of other things I don’t particularly like are …

  1. When I highlight text in the code editor window, right click to copy the text, the copy menu selection is grayed out. When I right click again, the menu selection for copy is available. This happens every single time.

  2. Also, when I change a property for a control in the inspector, the change does not happen until you change focus to another control, or property. It should change immediately after hitting return.

I hope they fix these problems soon.

I’d be shocked if there was not a feedback item on this already, it’s been discussed about a gazillion times since the beta,

[quote=26152:@James Redway]Hi Bob,

I did turn it off, but it really did not help too much. Its still extremely slow and tedious.[/quote]

I still think the shadows are responsible for the slower GUI editor (and maybe some other bliongbling stuff).
And yes, it is frustrating to position controls sometimes. It just has a huge lag and feels sluggish all the time.

Christophe: what Hardware / OS (and version) are you using ?
Include the Monitor specs with your answer.

MBP Retina.
But in my experience it is slow on any iMac or MBP I tried.

[quote=26253:@Christophe De Vocht]I still think the shadows are responsible for the slower GUI editor (and maybe some other bliongbling stuff).
And yes, it is frustrating to position controls sometimes. It just has a huge lag and feels sluggish all the time.[/quote]

I’ve had to revert to older releases to work on my projects… Especially on Linux it’s painfully slow, full of bugs problems etc.
Up to several seconds when making changes, even on windows. (and yes I have a ultra fast Computer, abundant RAM, GC etc is optimum.)

I have built several great apps with RealStudio. It was a fast coding easy to use language. Now the new Xojo is taking the speed and fun out if it. Its just a disaster. I’m sorry, but I’m getting more and more frustrated.

I think Xojo should move into Free and open-source and charge for support instead.

I think Xojo should change to free/open source and charge support instead.

[quote=26304:@Vince Francia]I think Xojo should move into Free and open-source and charge for support instead.
I think Xojo should change to free/open source and charge support instead.[/quote]

Not sure what this has to do with the slow GUI.

Anyhow, yes the GUI is sluggish atm but I am convinced it will be better in the near future releases.

[quote=26304:@Vince Francia]I think Xojo should move into Free and open-source and charge for support instead.
[/quote]

They’d make more money if they charged forum users $50 for each post that tells them how they should run their business.

[quote=26311:@Christophe De Vocht]Not sure what this has to do with the slow GUI.

You don’t? Well Opensource allows people/us to participate in the development of the tool in their instead of a centralized governing agency/biz deciding tyrannicallt to create these hated facelifts.
Opensource is the future.

Anyhow, yes the GUI is sluggish atm but I am convinced it will be better in the near future releases.[/quote]

You have a lot of funny comments. :slight_smile: Good for you that you have time to act as a forum cleaner everytime I post some fair critics.
But WE the paying customers are now getting a below par product for what we have paid. And I will say something if I don’t like what I’m getting for my money.

And yes opensource its where its going, like it or not… The old school software license business model is heading for extinction.

[quote=26338:@Vince Francia]And yes opensource its where its going, like it or not… The old school software license business model is heading for extinction.
[/quote]

I can just picture Geoff getting on emergency weekend video conference with the Xojo team today, asking them why nobody thought of this before and lamenting that they didn’t see the future coming. Comedy gold, Vince.

I have to smile when yet another ‘expert’ is willing to tell XOJO how to run its business, and for free no less.

Please take a few years, design your ultimate program, build a business and then open source it. Until then I doubt very many people are all that interested in how you think their business should be run.

If you want to discuss GUI slowness your opinion is valued. Your opinion of their business model is just noise.

[quote]I still think the shadows are responsible for the slower GUI editor (and maybe some other bliongbling stuff).
And yes, it is frustrating to position controls sometimes. It just has a huge lag and feels sluggish all the time.[/quote]

Is there a way to turn off the shadows? I just don’t know what would motivate them to release such as slow GUI.