Re: [Epiphany] Bookmarks system

[Marco Pesenti Gritti <mpeseng tin it>]

> > > I think there is also a usability issue in frequently opening such
> > > dialogs. Just in time wasted during this extra process. Might not
> > > apply to most modern systems, but I don't feel linux is made
> > > specificaly for modern systems either. The dialog takes aprox 2-3sec
> > > to open and become usable on my system.
> > 
> > I tried to avoid this since everything in theory can be made faster
> > but ... I think the speed problems caused by the menu are far worst
> > than those caused by the dialog. You have to build the whole bookmarks
> > menu every time you open a new window. For the dialog you have only to
> > build it when the user really want to access bookmarks and you fill
> > the list only with the elements of the selected keyword.
> 
> Never considered building the bookmarks menu being an issue. I thought
> menus generate quite fast, infact I've never seen it be a problem. Even
> my fully loaded Gnome applications menu is fast. Dialogs of any nature
> are cumbersome to create. Even the cookie accept/reject dialog is slow.

You dont notice the slowness because you dont know it's building the
menu (while you know it's building the dialog).
I bet everyone noticed how epiphany is faster then any other gecko based
browser to open new windows though. One of the reasons is that we have
not to build a bookmarks menu.

> I think another point that could be made here, is tabbed browsing would
> do away with this menu rebuilding. Right? Certainly didn't see this as an
> issue in galeon with or without tabs. (Meaning I didn't see it, but I
> do not have the capability to trace amout of time spent generating the
> menus)

Tabs should not substitute the window manager. I understand that in the
past using tabs has been also a solution for performance problems, but
that's not good IHMO. One more reason to make Open window faster.

> The dialog is currently being rebuilt every time. Ctrl-B, much time
> spent locating bookmark, Jump To, Close, Browse.. Ctrl-B again..

That can be fixed.

> > Obviously 2-3 secs are crazy, how many bookmarks do you have ? That
> > happen only when All is selected ? It would be useful if you could
> > open a bug about this.
> 
> Without inventing some magic awk|wc command, I'd have to say at least
> 150-200. 
> 
> And keep in mind here, 500mhz with 256mb ram and a light (bluecurve or
> default) gtk2 with AA fonts. This machine should be fine creating a
> dialog. That aside, what of the slower systems out there? That's my
> basis for feeling the dialog method is quite slow (being opened),
> invasive (if left open), and cumbersome (difficult to "browse"). Mabey
> on a 3ghz intel with rambus it seems not an issue. Forcing people to
> upgrade is a microsoft-ism.

Only 433 Mhz here. At least you can be sure I'll want ephy to be fast
enough on my box ;)
It's fast enough here, but i have not many bookmarks atm. I'm sure the
dialog performance can be improved and still, I think the menu is for
sure worst from this point of view.

> Do you feel I am a special case? If so I can back out of this anytime..
> I'm beginning to feel that way. However, I just want to be helpful, in
> pursuit of a better browser.

If I would think you was a special case, I'd not be discussing further.
As I said before I think there is not much hope to get to an agreement
about bookmarks/dialog usability, but I felt your feedback very useful.
I guess the more productive approach about this particular issue is to
improve the dialog speed and usability, while providing a way to access
a bookmarks menu from the toolbar.
Obviously you can get out of this as when you prefer, but please dont
feel like I'm ignoring your problem ;)

Marco