Categories
Mozilla

Test Add-on: Asynchronous Location Bar Searches (Take 3)

It seems as though the past builds still had issues on Windows. Mook was kind enough to get be a stack of the hang on shutdown folks were seeing, and I’ve modified the code to avoid making that happen (still not sure why it happened, but I know how it could get there – bug is filed). Without further delay, here’s an add-on that you can try out with the latest fixes in! I’ve been told on irc that this one works much better on Windows.

Categories
Mozilla

Test Build: Asynchronous Location Bar Searches (Take 2)

It turns out that I neglected to make the all-important packages-static file changes that would actually result in a build that works for most folks in my previous test builds. I thought I had fixed that with the last build, but apparently I never submitted it to the try server (I had the line in my terminal all ready to just press enter though!).

Without further delay, here is the new test build.

I’ve also made a handy little add-on that lets you test this out. I haven’t tested this add-on extensively, but it should work out OK. If you think you see a bug, try the test build first before reporting it please.

Still want your feedback on if you think the results are faster, slower, or about the same, so please follow-up!

Categories
Mozilla

Test Build: Asynchronous Location Bar Searches

A few months ago I decided to try to use the asynchronous storage API that was added in Firefox 3.1 to help reduce the pain of disk IO on the main thread. Sadly, it became quite apparent that this was going to be too big of a change and need to much work to make it into 3.1, so I put off doing any more work on it. However, this week I started working on the patch again, updating it to work with the changes to the location bar and the storage back-end. Today I finally got it passing all of our existing tests (although, I know of at least one condition where it fails and is untested).

Now that it’s passing all tests, I feel comfortable posting a test build for folks to try and see if it helps or not. I should note that the current implementation is pretty dumb and doesn’t take many opportunities speed up results. Additionally, there are some other performance wins that are on my mind that become a lot easier to do with this newer implementation.

Admittedly, I haven’t benchmarked this yet, so I don’t know how it compares to the existing code. During causal use, however, it feels no slower than the existing implementation, but I don’t usually have issues with it. The goal here is to help out those who do have performance issues with the location bar. In fact, that’s exactly the feedback I’m looking to get. So, if you are feeling ambitious and willing to live on the wild side for a bit, I’d like you try this test build. After a little bit of use, let me know if you think the results are faster, slower, or about the same. Note: this is build off of mozilla-central, so it’s like a 3.2a1pre build.

Your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Categories
RTSE

Changes

I have some good news, and I have some bad news. Since the world is so accustomed to bad news as of late with the economy and what not, I’ll start with that.

I will no longer be developing my first add-on, the Rooster Teeth Site Extender. I’ve established that I simply do not have time to maintain it, or do the reviews. It’s disappointing to both me, and its users to have an owner who isn’t really owning it.

Now for the good news. I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance – er, wait. That’s not it. There is a new maintainer! In fact, I’ve already transferred the ownership of the project over to him. He cares a lot more about the project than I do, so it’s a good fit.

You can still report bugs in the same place as before, but I’m just a consultant of the project now. I wish the project luck, and it’s been fun while it lasted!