user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

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superBK
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user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

Post by superBK »

I noticed the latest beta is taking some time to load the icons on the user menu which i didn't experience in v2.54

Can anyone confirm this?
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Re: user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

Post by Jan Rysavy »

Do you mean Altap Salamander 3.0 beta 3 (PB103)?

See http://www.altap.cz/salamander/downloads/eap/ - User Menu: reading icons for menu items in separate thread, so it does not delay start of Altap Salamander even if icons are placed on network drives or encrypted drives. Until reading of icons is finished, User Menu contains just simple icons but you can use it as usual.
superBK
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Re: user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

Post by superBK »

Yes i'm using PB103, i didn't mean AS is delayed starting up but the icons on the user menu are blank for a few seconds before being loaded. In v2.54 the icons were displayed instantly on startup of AS.
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Re: user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

Post by Petr Solin »

Do you mean icons on user menu toolbar?

It is important what icons are in user menu, configurations for 2.54 and 3.0 beta 3 (PB103) are in separate keys in registry, you can have there completely different items.

Please do the following test:
  • start RegEdit
  • exit all instances of Salamander
  • in RegEdit: find key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Altap\Altap Salamander 3.0 beta 3 (PB103) and rename it to Altap Salamander 3.0 beta 3 (PB103) backup
  • start Salamander 3.0 beta 3 (PB103), in first dialog choose to import configuration from version 2.54 ... to have the same user menu
  • test speed of reading icons in 2.54 against 3.0 beta 3 (PB103)
  • when you are finished, exit all Salamanders, switch to RegEdit, press F5 (Refresh), and delete Altap Salamander 3.0 beta 3 (PB103), then rename back Altap Salamander 3.0 beta 3 (PB103) backup to Altap Salamander 3.0 beta 3 (PB103).
It is possible that icons are loaded faster in 2.54 because of higher thread priority. It is possible to set higher priority to icons reading thread to fix this slow down. Please let me know results of your testing.
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Re: user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

Post by superBK »

After installing PB103 and importing the configuration from v2.54 i experienced this issue. I followed your instruction which is actually the same as what i did and the result remains the same. I guess the lower priority is the cause of this.
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Re: user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

Post by Petr Solin »

OK, thanks for test!
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Re: user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

Post by Petr Solin »

I have changed priority of the user menu icons reading thread to the same level as of main thread, so I hope it will work as fast as you were used to. Please test it with next version of Salamander and let me know if it is still slower or not.
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Re: user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

Post by SvA »

superBK wrote:I noticed the latest beta is taking some time to load the icons on the user menu which i didn't experience in v2.54
Hi Petr,

are you sure that your change does not only delay the load time of AS? I am not sure, superBK really suffered any delay compared to earlier versions of AS. On my main machine (I didn't pay attention to it anywhere else) it also takes quite some while until the symbols are displayed. But on the other hand, the application is ready for service in a breeze. It fels like AS 2.54 takes about as long to start up as 3.0b3 takes to start up and display the icons, but with 3.0 I have the possibility of using it much sooner. I suppose after your change the behavior will revert to resemble more AS 2.54 behavior.

So to me, the change was a big usability advantage and a minor UI irritation.

Have you thought about caching the icons (or a representation of the menu bar) to minimize the visible irritation instead?
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Re: user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

Post by Petr Solin »

It may delay start time of Salamander but only very little. It should not suffer by 10-15 seconds waiting times as AS 2.54 because icon reading thread is inactive during these long waits (e.g. wait for reading from network drive), so main thread can continue without any slowdown.

Please test it with next version, we can change it again, if it will be worse.
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Re: user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

Post by Petr Solin »

We have received reports that reading of icons for panels significantly delays reading of icons for user menu. So we have made two more patches. First, icons which are not visible in panel are not read before finishing of reading of icons for user menu. And second, Salamander waits (not longer than half second) for finishing of reading of icons for user menu on start. It prevents immediate collision with reading of icons for panels. We believe user menu icons will be displayed significantly earlier.
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Re: user menu icons taking seconds to load on startup of AS

Post by superBK »

I have just installed the latest beta and i'm still experiencing the same issue. Don't know if other users notice any difference.
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