beachball

[efjedi]

Hi,

I've been testing Eaglefiler and I've noticed that the beachball comes up a lot and there's a noticeable lag when switching sometimes between documents. Is this typical? I'm on a iMac G5, Tiger, 1.5GB RAM, 160GB HD, not many apps open. Thanks.

[Michael Tsai]

I don’t think that’s normal. When you say “switching sometimes between documents” do you mean:

1. clicking different items in EagleFiler’s records list
2. clicking different sources
3. switching library windows in EagleFiler
4. or switching from another application’s window to an EagleFiler window

?

How many records are in the library?

[efjedi]

It happens when I'm clicking between items in my library. My database is only about 152MB, but I've noticed the beachball a lot.

[Michael Tsai]

The size in MB of the library is pretty much irrelevant. When you click on the Library source, how many records does it say there are? What kind of documents are you viewing (and how large are they)? About how long is the lag when you click between them?

Please open the Activity Monitor program and look at the System Memory tab when using EagleFiler. How many Page-ins/outs does it say that there are? Are there any changes in Activity Monitor when you click between different documents in EagleFiler?

[efjedi]

The size in MB of the library is pretty much irrelevant. When you click on the Library source, how many records does it say there are?
35

What kind of documents are you viewing (and how large are they)?
PDF, RTF, text, largest file = 2MB

About how long is the lag when you click between them?
Sometimes as long as 30 seconds.

Please open the Activity Monitor program and look at the System Memory tab when using EagleFiler. How many Page-ins/outs does it say that there are?
51450/0

Are there any changes in Activity Monitor when you click between different documents in EagleFiler?
I don't see many differences, except the Page-ins/outs gets a little larger.

Here is a pic.

[efjedi]

after 15 minutes the Page-ins/out have changed a little.

[Michael Tsai]

Hmm, well it looks like you have plenty of RAM for what you’re doing, and EagleFIler is only using 35 MB of Private RAM. I have no idea why there would be such a long delay clicking between documents. I’ve never seen that before.

It would be helpful if you could make some measurements so that I can see what it’s doing during the lag. Please open Activity Monitor and select EagleFiler in the list. Choose Sample Process from the View menu. Then quickly switch to EagleFiler and click on a different document in the list. This should record where the time is being spent when displaying the new document. (You may need to try this a few times, or depending on how long the lag is, it might make more sense to start the sample after clicking on the new document to display.) Please save the sample windows to files and then send them to me via e-mail.

Also: do you see any items in EagleFiler’s Activity Viewer during the lag? How much CPU usage does Activity Monitor show for EagleFiler during that time?

[efjedi]

I noticed that most of the slow down was happening while indexing. Does EF do it frequently? Also, I notice it more after about an hour of keeping it open and working on other projects. I'll monitor and record through Activity Monitor tonight when I get back home. Thanks.

[Michael Tsai]

I noticed that most of the slow down was happening while indexing. Does EF do it frequently?

Well, EagleFiler must index new files as they are added to the library or as you modify files within the library. But, generally speaking, most of the time it will not be indexing.

[EricB]

Michael- I don't know if this is relevant here, but I get the beachball when switching between large (>5 MB) images. The delay seems to be in rendering the thumbs. Never had the problem with other types of records.

Intel 2.16GHz iMac, 1GB.

[Michael Tsai]

I don't know if this is relevant here, but I get the beachball when switching between large (>5 MB) images. The delay seems to be in rendering the thumbs. Never had the problem with other types of records.

This is probably normal. Unlike, say, iPhoto, EagleFiler doesn’t store thumbnails, so it has to read in the whole image and then scale it down to fit the size of the viewer pane. That could take a couple seconds for a large image.