Jay Carlson wrote:
> 
> Eric Scharff [mailto:Eric.Scharff at Colorado.EDU] writes:
> 
> > The feeling that Squeak 3.0 feels sluggish (especially when compared to
> > 2.8) seems to be verified by the benchmarks.
> 
> I'm not sure I trust the benchmarks for this.  I see more sluggishness than
> a 10% change in benchmark numbers would suggest.
> 
> My configuration is a Celeron 450 running Windows 2000.
> 
> I was trying to pin down a repeatable, quantifiable test, but didn't get
> anywhere with the quantifiable part.  Here's what I did:
> 
> Open a fresh Squeak 2.8 image (with either 2.8 or 3.0 VM).   Enter a morphic
> project. Open a browser.  Now click around on lots of classes and methods.
> Feels fast.
> 
> Open a fresh Squeak 2.9 or 3.0.a0 image (with either 2.8 or 3.0 VM).  Get
> that browser up.  Click on lots of classes and methods.  On my machine,
> there is a very visible difference in responsiveness---it takes a fraction
> of a second to react to clicks.  If it had sound effects, it would sound
> like "clickCLUNK" instead of just "click".

Believe it or not, this problem will be fixed if you turn off the browseWithDragNDrop preference.  (and open a new browser)

Somehow a 200ms delay is built into the browser selecting when drag and drop is turned on, although it doesn't seem like it should really be necessary.  Perhaps it was easier to implement this way, I haven't dug into it.  Still, it's a significant problem that almost might make it worth disabling drag and drop by default if there isn't some other way to fix it.

(Actually, for awhile in 2.9 there were more places in Morphic with a 200ms delay built in (including bringing up the World menu), but most of these got cleaned up a couple of months ago.)

- Doug Way
  dway at riskmetrics.com