[orca-list] slowness in gnome shell

[kendell clark <coffeekingms gmail com>]

hi all
I'm writing in to report some lag when typing into gnome's activities
overview. Looking at debug logs there appears to be two factors to this.
One of them is that orca is getting absolutely hammered with events,
mostly object:stateChanged:showing from all the possible search results
as you type, followed by them disappearing and orca no longer being able
to query them. The other is that there seems to be a lag between when
orca focuses on a search result and when speech is generated. I have a
snippet of a debug log that demonstrates this. I'm searching for the
"alter aeon" item, which will launch the tintin mud client and connect
to alter aeon for playing. Warning, lots of output coming up.

##beginning of output ##
vvvvv PROCESS OBJECT EVENT object:state-changed:selected vvvvv
OBJECT EVENT: object:state-changed:selected            detail=(1,0,0)
    app.name='gnome-shell' name='None' role='push button' state='enabled
focusable selected sensitive showing visible' relations='labelled by'
interfaces='Accessible Action Collection Component'
INFO: Getting script for object:state-changed:selected from [application
| gnome-shell]
INFO: Script for object:state-changed:selected from [application |
gnome-shell] is <orca.scripts.apps.gnome-shell.script.Script object at
0x7f52ae579390>
LOCUS OF FOCUS: app='gnome-shell' name='' role='push button'
                event='object:state-changed:selected'
BRAILLE: update disabled

PREPARATION TIME: 0.0004
generate speech for unfocused app.name='gnome-shell' name='None'
role='push button' state='enabled focusable selected sensitive showing
visible' relations='labelled by' interfaces='Accessible Action
Collection Component'
(args={'formatType': 'unfocused', 'role': <enum ATSPI_ROLE_PUSH_BUTTON
of type AtspiRole>, 'mode': 'speech', 'recursing': True, 'priorObj':
<Accessible object at 0x7f52af20a990 (AtspiAccessible at 0x18ba830)>})
using 'oldAncestors + newAncestors + labelAndName + expandableState +
roleName + availability + (mnemonic and (pause + mnemonic + lineBreak)
or []) + accelerator + newNodeLevel + unselectedCell + clickable +
hasLongDesc + (tutorial and (pause + tutorial) or []) + description'
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0003  ---->  oldAncestors=[]
script_utilities.commonAncestor...
...script_utilities.commonAncestor
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
Object deemed to be for layout purposes only: [panel | ]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0105  ---->  newAncestors=[]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0009  ---->  labelAndName=['Alter Aeon', {'rate':
75.0, 'family': {'name': 'max', 'locale': 'en', 'dialect': 'us'},
'average-pitch': 5.0}]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0002  ---->  expandableState=[]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0002  ---->  roleName=['push button', {'rate': 75.0,
'family': {'name': 'max', 'locale': 'en', 'dialect': 'us'},
'average-pitch': 5.0}]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0001  ---->  availability=[]
script_utilities.getKeyBinding: ['', '', '']
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0003  ---->  mnemonic=[]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0001  ---->  accelerator=[]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0003  ---->  newNodeLevel=[]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0001  ---->  unselectedCell=[]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0001  ---->  clickable=[]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0001  ---->  hasLongDesc=[]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0001  ---->  tutorial=[]
GENERATION  TIME: 0.0001  ---->  description=[]
COMPLETION  TIME: 0.0142
generate speech results:
  Alter Aeon
  {'rate': 75.0, 'family': {'name': 'max', 'locale': 'en', 'dialect':
'us'}, 'average-pitch': 5.0}
  push button
  {'rate': 75.0, 'family': {'name': 'max', 'locale': 'en', 'dialect':
'us'}, 'average-pitch': 5.0}
SPEECH OUTPUT: 'Alter Aeon push button'
TOTAL PROCESSING TIME: 0.0161
^^^^^ PROCESS OBJECT EVENT object:state-changed:selected ^^^^^


##end of output##
 This doesn't sound like a large delay, but imagine a delay of this
every time you arrow among search results, or among anything in the
activities overview for that matter. If you press super+a to view the
installed applications, you'd see a similar delay when arrowing among
the results. Ditto when arrowing among the open windows in the
activities overview and applications in the dash. I suspect part of this
is due to that  bug joanie filed against gtk+, but part of it might be
either orca or gnome shell. I'm still trying to figure out which. Anyone
else have any ideas? This might also explain some of the verbosity when
navigating among items in mate's panel, though this is likely a separate
issue entirely.
Thanks
Kendell clark