CSV files : huge performance issue...

[Vincent Trouilliez <vincent trouilliez wanadoo fr>]

Hi Gents,

First post here, not sure if this is the right place, if it's for users or developpers, but I couldn't find a Gnumeric specific web forum so here I am.

I ran into a huge problem today when (trying to) working on a 'CSV' file. No problem to import it, works like a charm. However doing anything with the data proves EXTREMELY slow. So slow that it's actually not useable. My file is not big, only 1 MB, and contains about 800,000 cells (40 columns and 20,000 lines), but creating a graph takes quite some time, simply getting a preview of the graph when clicking on the "preview" button takes 3 to 5 seconds I would say. 
This is fair enough, you only do it once. However once the graph is created and put on top of the cells/spreadsheet, if I want to "drag" it somewhere with the mouse, it takes about 15 seconds to move by 3 or 4 cells...

It's as is whatever I am trying to do with the mouse, gnumeric processess the entire 800,000 cells, instead of affecting only the 100 or so cells taht are atually visible at a given time, in the document window. Am I right in this assumption ?   Also, saving the file into Gnumeric format took about 5 to 10 minutes of hard work for the hard drive... :-/
What puzzles me is that last time I worked on such files, it was with MS Excel, and it was lightening fast, opening, creating graphs, manipulating data, moving graphs around, saving the file, everytinhg seemed fast and effortless. So the machine is not at fault. Why is Gnuméric so slow ? Considering Gnuméric aims (I think ?) to be as good as Excel, can I hope that this major issue will be investigated, or is already under investigation ? 

I am really unhappy to have to start windows just to plot some simple graphs ! :o(

I would, therefore, like to hear about people's experiences when working with comparably sized CSV files, making graphs from them etc.
If this problem is already known, then what's the current status on this ? Are the developpers working on this, is the root problem/cause identified, how difficult would it be to cure, how long would that take ? 

I am so frustrated, Gnumeric is no nice, imported the file perfectly, so it's such a waste to have to give it up just because it's so slow ! :o(

By the way, Open Office.org spreasheet, is even worse. When tryin gto make a graph, it simply froze ! Waited 10 minutes but eventually had to resort to kill its process !

Sorry for this first long post, tried to be as exhasutive/accurate  as possible.

Thanks for any comments/info,

Regards,

Vince.