Re: [orca-list] Sluggishness in Orca

[Kyle <kyle4jesus gmail com>]

Andy Borka via orca-list aliandika:
> # Best recommendation is to get a better computer at some point. 

That dependds on how you define better. First of all, I personally define a 
better computer as one that doesn't break the bank, either at purchase time or 
during a month of daily usage. I currently have 4 to 5 computers running at any 
one time, and they altogether use about 20% of the power used by the monster 
beasty I had that finally died earlier this year, and any one of them is capable 
of being powered by a standard USB cell phone battery for anywhere from 6 to 16 
hours or more. I consider any one of these to be a better computer. Now for the 
most relevant point. A screen reader should run smoothly on any computer that is 
capable of running a supported desktop. The work-around for a bug or other 
performance issue that is causing a screen reader to lag is not to "get a better 
computer." I understand that computers with less RAM can't be tested by some 
people because they don't have such machines with which to test, but "get a 
better computer," read more expensive for better, is just not a good work-around 
for a performance bug that can be traced to the screen reader. These are in fact 
valid bugs, and shouldn't be dismissed out of hand because of the hardware on 
which they were found.

And now to try to reproduce and/or confirm the bugs. Full disclosure, I'm 
running ArchLinuxARM with Orca pulled 2 days ago from git on an ODroid C2. This 
machine has 2GB of RAM, a quad-core A53 64-bit processor running at 1.5GHz, and 
a 128GB SSD with a connected 3TB USB spinning hard disk. The OS runs from the 
SSD,and includes MATE 1.20.3.

Brandon Tyson via orca-list aliandika:
# 1. As of Orca 3.29, and continuing into at least Orca 3.30.0, when you
# tab into the voice type settings panel in Orca's preferences dialog on
# the voice tab, there is a very noticeable lag that was not present
# before, and Orca does not announce anything else until it recovers
# from the lag.

Could this possibly be fixed? I do notice a slight lag, less than a second, as 
soon as the preferences window opens, but the voice tab is running smoothly 
here. So this one is either not affecting me, or has been fixed. I can't tell 
for sure either way.

# 2. Orca really seems to lag when reading through websites in Firefox.
# When I up and down arrow, and there's a lot of links, images, entries,
# anything other than just simple text for the most part, it takes Orca
# some time to read, and this is especially a lot more noticeable on
# lower end systems.

Confirmed. However, I have usually attributed this slowness to Firefox more than 
to Orca, as much of the same lag is present on many of the same websites in 
Seamonkey and Firefox, but Chromium doesn't lag on most of these same websites. 
It's definitely worth looking into, but may be a Mozilla bug rather than an Orca 
bug. Unfortunately there really isn't any other screen reader that I can use to 
help me determine where the problem may be. The best site to use for testing 
that doesn't require any login information is
https://figgers.com/
which is practically unusable in both Firefox and Seamonkey with Orca, but seems 
to work quite well in Chromium.

# 3. For me, in general, to get Orca to run well I have to have a super
# high end system. Another system a friend of mine has is using Orca
# 3.28.0, and Ubuntu Mate 18.04 with 1 gb of RAM and Orca is extremely
# sluggish. When they change Orca settings and press the "OK" button,
# Orca says "screen reader settings reloaded", but then takes a good 5
# to 7 seconds before it announces the Desktop.

Confirmed. This sluggishness isn't limited to changing settings and reloading 
using the OK button however. I find that it can take anywhere from 0 up to 5 to 
6 seconds to announce either the desktop or the currently focused window if I 
toggle Orca off and then back on. Unfortunately, this one is not 100% 
reproduceable. It's rather hit or miss here, happening maybe 60 to 70% of the 
time, and as I said, it's quite variable in nature.

# 4. When navigating in general, if you don't have a super high end
# system, Orca seems to lag, for example, even when going through the
# alt f1 menus in Ubuntu Mate.

Confirmed, although the lag isn't very long here, only about 0.2 to maybe 0.3 
seconds at most as I navigate through the menu. Looks like some of this could be 
related to accessible event floods, but I'm not sure. Most of the time, I don't 
notice this when navigating, but yes, I do see it in the MATE menu system, 
probably more in the main applications menu than any other menu or in the 
applications submenus. Again, in the places where I see it, it's really not 
extremely sluggish, just a bit noticeable. So I will say it's confirmed here. It 
does also appear to corolate with CPU speed or the number of threads available, 
as I don't notice the sluggishness in the menu so much on my XU4, which has 4 
32-bit A15 cores running at 2GHz and 4 32-bit A7 cores running at 1.4GHz, and 
also has 2GB of RAM. I hope this information can help track down some of these 
sluggish areas at least a little.
Imetumwa kutoka Orca