Hello,
I'm contemplating filing one or more bugs on an issue I'm facing with
out of control javascripts (not my javascripts, but others). This
might be something better solved by Safari and other applications
using WebKit, but I'm wondering whether there's any possible solutions
at the Webkit level.
First some background information I've been traveling with a MacBook
Air. My primary browser is Safari. Usually I maintain many open
windows and each with many tabs. However, battery life is precious on
the MacBook Air since there's no way to change batteries. However I
find that if I leave my javascript and plugins enabled in Safari that
there are one or more javascripts that inevitably eat up my battery
and within a very short time. My work around has been to turn off
javascript and plugins and launch Firefox whenever I need those (the
same problem exists with Firefox and I find that if I forget to quit
Firefox when I'm done with the javascript browsing my Air gets very
hot and the processors are pegged in Activity Monitor.)
So my question is that are these simply poorly written plugins and
poorly written javascripts? Is there any way for WebKit to keep these
somehow in check (loading a YouTube video and leaving it running in a
background tab or window is an especially egregious consumer of
processor cycles).
If not at the WebKit level, I'm considering filing one or more Safari
bugs at ADC. For example, would it create any problems to have
javscripts paused on all documents loaded in all tabs but the
frontmost (that way a user could even load an empty tab in a window
just to avoid run-away processes). Even for audio only processes, It
doesn't strike me as an undue burden for audio processes to cease in
buried tabs. I know this isn't the place to discuss Safari
specifically, but there's got to be a way to get these processes under
control with either WebKit of the applications using WebKit.
The other option I can see is some sort of evangelism to encourage web
content creators (and plugin makers) to utilize event driven models
with javscript (I haven't looked at the javascripts in depth, but my
guess is that they're cycling and polling continuously to heat up my
cpu so much).
Take care,
Rob
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