Android Question B4A 5.0 Beta: autocomplete/intellisense

[sorex]

Hello,

Is there a way to tweak the autocomplete/intellisense a bit so that it resets the search counter at each keypress ?

It is too slow and when I typed a line I really have to wait for the chars to appear.

Worst case making it optionally behave like before (ctrl + space)

 

[sorex]

just did some quick typing again and it seems chars display one every second.

 

[Peter Simpson]

Hello @sorex,

Worst case making it optionally behave like before (ctrl + space)

Having an option to switch off the intellisense would probably be a good idea. I'm not suffering from any lag issues whatsoever when typing fast, it's running absolutely smoothly here, the intellisense is instant...

 

[sorex]

I notice that the variable log window is also updated at every keypress, maybe that's part of the slowdown aswell.

should be enough for me if that one is only updated during compile.

 

[Erel]

The IDE was heavily tested with large code files (more than 30,000 lines each). The performance is mostly not affected by the code length.
The main thread never blocks while something happens in the background.

With that said, if you are running it on a slower computer (maybe with a single core) then the background tasks can slow down the main thread.
I will try to add an option to disable some of the features.

 

[sorex]

It's a Dell Precision M4300 laptop so it's a dual core Intel Centrino box. All other soft I use runs fast on it.

also notice that the filter lists too many results aswell. enter "aa" on a new line and it populates that listbox with everything having 2 a's somewhere in the command (not next to each other)

 

[sorex]

I just double checked with the new B4J IDE, it is faster in that one just like I recalled.

maybe the keyword list to search through is shorter in the B4J IDE?

 

[sorex]

Thanks for beta 3, @Erel.

It didn't solve my issue yet so I went for other tests.

I installed the beta on my 13 year old single core 2.6GHz Dell Dimension desktop.

The same result is to be seen there.

Looking around on the net I see a lot of posts about slow autocomplete/intellisense in Visual Studio's so I fired up VB.NET 2010 which I have installed there.

Surprisingly the intellisente/autocomplete is instant there and no delays at all. (Never noticed it in the Notepad2 Mod either that looks through every word in the open document for autocompletion)

 

[Erel]

I installed the beta on my 13 year old single core 2.6GHz Dell Dimension desktop.

I don't think that such a computer is relevant for performance testing. I tried it on several moderately old computers and the performance was good.

Anyway the next update will include an option to disable the implicit auto completion.

 

[qsrtech]

I too find the "intellisense" lagging but maybe i'm just too fast for it

 

[sorex]

I don't think that such a computer is relevant for performance testing. I tried it on several moderately old computers and the performance was good.

that is like avoiding the issue. if VS and other editors are not lagging on that feature at all than it means something is wrong with the current implementation.

see for the compare with B4J which I mentioned earlier that is a lot faster.

when I keep pressing a letter in B4A nothing appears till I release the button and wait a few more seconds till it went through all lookups or source checks.

I still have to find another editor that has this kind of behaviour.

My guess is that the problem is the log update (see attachment) that seems to go over the entire source on every keypress, maybe that should only be done at line change or compile?

 

[sorex]

forgot to mention that I agree that you give priority to the compile problems that keep people stuck and I'm willing to test custom builds in advance related to this issue.

 

[Erel]

(There are currently no compilation problems in the new version.)

Can you enable the IDE logs and upload them?
https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/intermittent-error-message.9047/#post-50478

 

[sorex]

ok, I opened it with that parameter.

wrote a few dim lines and closed it again.

the log is attached.

 

[sorex]

I see in the log that it uses .NET 4.0, I don't think I updated to the .net that was in your first post. Will do that now but it didn't gain any speed in the designer when I did that on the other machine.

 

[sorex]

the installer reported that I already had that .NET 4.0 installed. (it's an XP and the other an Windows 7 box)

 

[Erel]

Please try it again when beta #4 is released with the option to disable the automatic auto completion.

 

[sorex]

is it possible to split it up in

[x] Enable Autocomplete
[x] Enable log updates while typing

?

if the 2nd is the cause I can still benefit the autocomplete.

thanks.

 

[Erel]

As I previously wrote the UI thread is never blocked because of background tasks. It is possible that building the auto completion list (which must happen on the ui thread) slows down the typing.

Disabling the warnings will not affect the performance.

 

[sorex]

well you always have a theoratical and the practical side of a programming story

If you don't try you never know for sure.

the slowdown is there on my machines and different OSs so it's not a single case.

I'll see if I can track something on those machines.