As I wrote in the readme file, it's not "meant" to be fast. It is simply doing software rendering. We're currently going for stability and completeness.
For example, there's some problems with tab titles disappearing, as well as some refreshes being swallowed up. This is much easier to track and fix in a software only version. Once the software only version renders correctly in all aspects, it's possible to go for an accelerated display.
This release is mainly meant to gather user experience. It is by all means a usable browser already, though it will still need speedup.
I tested it on a Pegasos II and X1000, and on the former, it's ok, and on the latter, it's actually quite good (should be expected, I guess).
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- It need some time at startup and the window will always opened minimized and at the top of the screen (exactly the same as the old Timberwolf 3.5 release)
That's the way Mozilla creates windows. It creates them with a 0 by 0 size and then resizes them. A bit strange, maybe, but I consider it a minor issue. AmigaOS can not create 0 x 0 windows, so I need to create a 1 x 1 (inner width) window and that includes the decoration already. I might at a later point hide windows with 0 size until they are resized to their nominal size.
The startup time is partially due to the large amount of code it loads. It opens libxul.so, which is IIRC some 40 MB and contains all the core functionality of the browser. Also, the startup of the font backend takes some time. We're looking to alternatives for fontconfig, but that includes writing a new font backend for cairo...
Next version will feature a splash screen to show that things are moving.
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- Sometimes the title on the tab(s) will disappear, not a huge issue but still
I noticed that as well, but I have no idea why yet. I haven't looked into it yet, though.
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- I note a strange black box on certain GUI element (the same problem that Rogue showed on his first video)
I guess this is basically the same as the missing tab titles. Maybe some updates are swallowed...
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- Download does not work yet ?
Didn't actually try that. I think file access should work, in general, and downloading addons via the addon page does work, so it might be the file requester that is acting up.
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How about opening a proper bugtracker on bugs.os4depot ?
We do want to set up a bugtracker soon. No idea how we are proceeding with it, I'll check out os4depot's bugtracker.
Addons work. Xmarks doesn't though, gives me an error when it tries to sync (logs me in ok). Seems to be very long pauses sometimes waiting for things to happen, but I guess they will go when everything speeds up.
That's the way Mozilla creates windows. It creates them with a 0 by 0 size and then resizes them. A bit strange, maybe, but I consider it a minor issue. AmigaOS can not create 0 x 0 windows, so I need to create a 1 x 1 (inner width) window and that includes the decoration already. I might at a later point hide windows with 0 size until they are resized to their nominal size.
Yep it seems we have similar problem with QT apps, expecially on the popups windows, if you fix it then maybe you can share the code with Alfkil or viceversa
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Also, the startup of the font backend takes some time. We're looking to alternatives for fontconfig, but that includes writing a new font backend for cairo...
Ok, good
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Didn't actually try that. I think file access should work, in general, and downloading addons via the addon page does work, so it might be the file requester that is acting up
I try to download somethings from OS4Depot but nothing happen, maybe as you say it's just the file requester that refuse to open automatically
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We do want to set up a bugtracker soon. No idea how we are proceeding with it, I'll check out os4depot's bugtracker.
Yep I suggest you to use that, it's our standard tracker for beta apps
Load and runs very well on my Sam460. Posting from TW :)
- I can also confirm that minimizing the TW window creates a DSI (Update5-Beta Sam460)
- Btw is there way to stop TW ask for loading missing plugins ? TW is always looking for a flash plugin, but can't find it of course (I wonder a gnash plugin makes sense)
- Loaidng process at a second tab slows the current tab you are viewing. I guess this is expected in this version.
Things will improve in time with our help to Frieden brothers...
-- Sinan Gürkan AmigaOS4 Beta-Tester *Sam460ex + 2GB RAM + RadeonHD PCI-Express 4650 1GB 128bit + Sil3512 PCI SATA Card + Corsair Force 40GB SSD + Sata DVD*
That's the way Mozilla creates windows. It creates them with a 0 by 0 size and then resizes them. A bit strange, maybe, but I consider it a minor issue. AmigaOS can not create 0 x 0 windows, so I need to create a 1 x 1 (inner width) window and that includes the decoration already. I might at a later point hide windows with 0 size until they are resized to their nominal size.
If Mozilla technology can be the base for other ports in the future, and apparently Qt does a similar thing, maybe a feature should be added to Intuition (?) to accept creating a window with 0,0 size and take it as a sign that the window should be hidden until resized?
Actually, as far as I recall, Qt wants to open a small window _outside_ the screen area and then move/resize when it is done with init stuff. Strange...
- I can also confirm that minimizing the TW window creates a DSI (Update5-Beta Sam460)
Yes, I ran into this one as well. I guess I know what it is, will be fixed in the next version.
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- Btw is there way to stop TW ask for loading missing plugins ? TW is always looking for a flash plugin, but can't find it of course (I wonder a gnash plugin makes sense)
I think you can click on options in the yellow bar and prevent it from doing this, but the whole process is defined by Firefox itself, so no way to change that behavior.
You might try about:config and see if there's any advanced option you can use for this.
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- Loaidng process at a second tab slows the current tab you are viewing. I guess this is expected in this version.
Yes. The current version does not yet support threaded tabs. In a future version, tabs will each run in it's own thread, which will balance the load.
Ive tried it on my SAM440 733Mhz and it renders pages perfectly! However it is VERY slow, pages like Google take a quite few seconds to come up and responding to threads on forums is weird as I am typing and then watch the text slowly pop up on the screen :-s
A guy on Amibay has a MicroA1 @800Mhz, he sent me a video of his running through a few of the same things, but his is much faster?! I realise this is beta but anyone got any ideas as to why its THAT slow?
yeah, it's brutally slow on my SAM as well. the friedens did mention it would be poky -- but, yeah, i wouldn't call it usable on our SAMs. on the plus side progress has been made, and it does seem much more complete than the previous release. i reckon us poor-ol' SAM folk will need to wait for future releases before we can hop on the timberwolf train.
by the way, at least on my SAM, the entire system seems to slow to a crawl when timberwolf is running. i'm not running out of memory or forcing active swapping, so i wonder if there is some while loop spinning somewhere eating up all of the available CPU cycles.
~Yes I am a Kiwi, No, I did not appear as an extra in 'Lord of the Rings'~ 1x AmigaOne X5000 2.0GHz 2gM RadeonR9280X AOS4.x 3x AmigaOne X1000 1.8GHz 2gM RadeonHD7970 AOS4.x
~Yes I am a Kiwi, No, I did not appear as an extra in 'Lord of the Rings'~ 1x AmigaOne X5000 2.0GHz 2gM RadeonR9280X AOS4.x 3x AmigaOne X1000 1.8GHz 2gM RadeonHD7970 AOS4.x
yeah, it's brutally slow on my SAM as well. the friedens did mention it would be poky -- but, yeah, i wouldn't call it usable on our SAMs. on the plus side progress has been made, and it does seem much more complete than the previous release. i reckon us poor-ol' SAM folk will need to wait for future releases before we can hop on the timberwolf train.
by the way, at least on my SAM, the entire system seems to slow to a crawl when timberwolf is running. i'm not running out of memory or forcing active swapping, so i wonder if there is some while loop spinning somewhere eating up all of the available CPU cycles.
-- eliyahu
Thanks for posting that mate, its reassuring to know its not just me My system didnt seem to clow to a crawl though, however I didnt really do much while basking in the glory of Firefox on Amiga!
About the speed: Yes, it's slow on the lower end systems. It's quite fine on the X-1000, though. As has been said elsewhere, the current focus is on feature completeness and stability. There is no optimization whatsoever.
For example, page refreshes are merged into a single refresh no matter what. That means if there is a small animation running at to opposite sides of the window, the whole window will be refreshed. Once we get into optimizing, we'll work out a metric for merging page refreshes based on the additional pixels they introduce, this alone should already speed things up.
The rendering itself is done in software, nothing is hardware accelerated, not even text output or picture composition. When you scroll, it repaints the whole window. The layer manager uses the generic software only layer manager.
Obviously, there is ample room for optimizations :)
BTW, anyone found the easter egg yet?
Seriously, if you do want to contact me write me a mail. You're more likely to get a reply then.
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