On Thu, 7 Dec 2000, Clarence Verge wrote:
> Steve Linux User wrote:
> >
> > I take it all back. Running M18 on a K6-2/500 with 32MB of RAM
> > is painfully slow... Way slower than say, Arachne 0.7 on a
> > 386SX-16 with 4MB RAM.
>
> This a perfect statement to archive as a quote or example of what is wrong
> today and probably has always been wrong, with application software.
> Exactly what good is Linux and 32 bit programming doing here ?
Unfortunately, Mozilla seems to be written as a cross-platform
application (read primarily targetted at Windows). In past
versions of Linux Netscape, for instance, the URL window displayed
a syntax of "file:/home/stackman/file.html".
Now, you type in "/home/stackman/file.html", and Mozilla displays
the file, but changes the URL window to the Windows syntax of
"file:///home/stackman/file.html". It's a small thing, but it's
ugly... and makes no sense.
> The "C" programmers' philosophy: Just write until you can't think up any
> more crap and let the hardware people figure out how to make it run.:((
Much of the functionality dealing with preferences and
configuration, etc., is done by calling JavaScripts rather than
internal binaries. 'locate mozilla |grep .js' returns this:
/usr/local/mozilla/components/nsDictionary.js
/usr/local/mozilla/components/jsconsole-clhandler.js
/usr/local/mozilla/components/libjsurl.so
/usr/local/mozilla/components/nsSample.js
/usr/local/mozilla/components/nsSidebar.js
/usr/local/mozilla/components/nsXmlRpcClient.js
/usr/local/mozilla/components/libjsloader.so
/usr/local/mozilla/components/nsFilePicker.js
/usr/local/mozilla/components/chatzilla-service.js
/usr/local/mozilla/libmozjs.so
/usr/local/mozilla/libjsdom.so
/usr/local/mozilla/defaults/pref/config.js
/usr/local/mozilla/defaults/pref/xpinstall.js
/usr/local/mozilla/defaults/pref/editor.js
/usr/local/mozilla/defaults/pref/initpref.js
/usr/local/mozilla/defaults/pref/all.js
/usr/local/mozilla/defaults/pref/security-prefs.js
/usr/local/mozilla/defaults/pref/mailnews.js
/usr/local/mozilla/defaults/pref/unix.js
/usr/local/mozilla/libjsj.so
JavaScript, being an interpreted language, is much slower than
binary code. Writing parts of the browser itself in JavaScript
means easier portablility, but slower execution.
There are also *.jar files within Mozilla, but they mostly
seem to be related to the browser "skin."
Here's an apparent paradox: Communicator 4.72 is a ~15MB
download. Mozilla (M18) is "only" an ~8MB download, yet it
requires much more memory to run. Even with 32MB of RAM, my
hard drive light comes on and stays on.
Starting out with NS 3.04 and a half-dozen xterms going, simply
running mozilla, without having it *do* a single thing, eats up
7MB of swap.
In comparison, when I load Navigator 4.75 under the same
conditions, swap isn't even touched. I've never had much use for
NS 4.x because of how slow I thought it was. All of a sudden,
4.75 doesn't seem so slow any more.
I never thought I'd be saying that!
Anyway, after all this, I'm very much looking forward to
improvements in the Linux version of Arachne. It still has a
long way to go to reach the functionality of the DOS version, but
I'm sure once Michael begins to work in earnest on the Linux
version, it won't be too long 'til the Linux version surpasses the
DOS version (especially with more and more of us running Linux and
able to beta).
-
Steve Ackman [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Glass Host, Arts & Crafts http://www.delphi.com/crafts
Metamorphosis Glassworks Page http://twovoyagers.com/metamorphosis
