[Evolution-hackers] My Evolution Project

[SteveOC <steveoc gtkpizza org>]

Just joined the list so that I can start some development on Evolution.

Evolution rules, BUT - I have a problem that I seriously want to fix. I
will run it by people first to make sure that it has not already been
attended to.

1) I use Evolution on my day-to-day workstation. This one is at a client
site, where I have donated a simple linux box to give me a reason to
turn up there 5 days a week. This box is an M810LR based XP1800+ machine
with onboard video (shared SDRAM video). OK, its not a graphics
workstation, just a great reliable web server, that gets a bit of
occasional desktop use. Im running a stock standard RedHat 8.0 install
with an un-touched Ximiam Evolution 1.0.8-10.

2) I have it set to manual POP'ing of my mail from various servers. When
I load a pile of new mail on the machine, the first thing that I want to
do is to quickly scroll through the list and Ctrl-D the crap (Spam, Ebay
outbid notices, etc).

3) More often than not, when I down-arrow onto the next un-read mail,
Evolution's first priority seems to be to render the horrible HTML
contained in these messages which I have no intention of ever reading. I
obviously want to just Ctrl-D the message away and down-arrow onto the
next one.

4) When rendering the HTML messages, the CPU goes to 100%, and the
keyboard becomes unresponsive for a good 3-4 seconds. I am assuming that
the shared SDRAM video is a big culprit here, but then again, I can gimp
away without drama on this box. 

5) There are some old messages from the mailing list (circa 2001)
regarding spinlock problems with libbonobo causing CPU thrashing on
different apps. Im no bonobo hacker, so cannot comment here. If it is a
bonobo / corba problem, then I might be getting into a can of worms ? .
Maybe the issue is with Gtk-Html widget ?? dunno.

---------------------
My Plan :

- Hack evolution so that the priorities are :
1) Highlight the message in the summary list.
2) Listen to the keyboard, and obey (up / down / Ctrl-D / Ctrl-E)
3) Render all mail messages during idle cycles only.

Result should be that I can quickly zip around the list of mail messages
and cull out the crap without suffering 5 second pauses every time I
touch the keyboard.

For everything else, Evolution seems very responsive. As it stands, I
would be embarrassed to show it off to anyone contemplating making a
leap of faith away from MS-Outlook, but only because of this pause
issue.

If it is has already been addressed, and I am way behind the times with
the RH8.0 base, then let me know.

Cheers
SteveOC
www.gtkpizza.org