(BUG) Image downloads and layout glitches

[Michael Allan]

This is now fixed.  The slow rendering was fixed (a) by specifying
image dimensions; (b) aggregating all GWT style sheets into one [1];
and (c) loading the stage asynchronously.  To prevent the scene from
bouncing when the stage finally appears, a stabilizer was added.  It
works imperfectly, especially with Firefox in the pollwiki. [2]

I emulated Internet latency and measured the following render times in
seconds for clean load [3] / revisit [4].

                   clean / revisit  clean / revist
                   -----   -------  -----   ------
a) http://zelea.com/project/votorola/home.html
   Before:  Firefox 13.0 / 4.5    IE  4.0 / 4.5
   After:   Firefox  4.0 / 2.5    IE  2.3 / 1.0

   IE isn't loading the stage here, just a default banner that say's
   IE is not supported.  Firefox is down to 4 s from 13.  I thought I
   could do better, because without the stage (or default banner on
   IE) rendering is extremely fast on the home page:

            Firefox  1.0 / 1.0    IE  0.5 / 0.5

   Maybe my emulation makes it look worse than it is?  I put a 500 ms
   delay on every packet, which means each crucial file (CSS or script
   or undimensioned image) adds a minimum of 0.5 s to the render time.
   The 0.5 measured for IE (home page without banner) is the barest
   minimum I guess, accounting for just the HTML file.

b) http://zelea.com/project/votorola/d/theory.xht
   Before:  Firefox  7.0 / 3.0    IE  6.0 / 4.0
   After:   Firefox  6.0 / 3.0    IE  6.0 / 4.5

   This is just a control, no change was expected here.

c) http://mail.zelea.com/list/votorola/
   Before:  Firefox  9.0 / 7.5    IE  4.0 / 4.0
   After:   Firefox  3.0 / 1.5    IE  3.0 / 2.0

   Unclear why IE speeded up here.  It's always shown the default
   banner on that page.

d) http://zelea.com:8080/v/w/D?a=5339&b=5340&s
   Before:  Firefox 11.5 / 4.0    IE  6.0 / 5.0
   After:   Firefox  6.0 / 2.0    IE  6.0 / 4.0

e) http://zelea.com/w/User:Frank-FlippityNet/Sys/p/sandbox  toolset=V
   Before:  Firefox 11.0 / 3.0
   After:   Firefox  8.5 / 3.0

f) http://zelea.com/w/User:Frank-FlippityNet/Sys/p/sandbox  toolset=I
   Before:  Firefox  8.0 / 4.0    IE 10.5 / 3.0
   After:   Firefox  8.7 / 3.0    IE 10.0 / 2.5

   IE's no longer showing a toolset switch here in the wiki, I dropped
   it down to the default banner.  That's my fix for the rendering
   bug, because we can't really afford to support IE yet.

g) http://zelea.com/w/Stuff:Votorola/n/manager_wanted       toolset=I
   Before:  Firefox 11.7 / 4.0    IE 10.0 / 5.0
   After:   Firefox  7.8 / 2.5    IE  9.5 / 4.5

Assuming my emulation is accurate, Firefox is now twice as fast at
clean loading staged pages (a, c, d, e).  I didn't take readings for
Chrome, our other supported browser.

Please let me know if you see further bugs, or other problems.

Mike


   [1] Conseo, you may want to use the new build option --optimizeCSS
       when deploying to your production server.

   [2] I see the scene jump in Firefox on every wiki page.  I don't
       know how because the stabilizer is rendered as a top-border
       (albeit added by a script), same as in non-wiki pages.
       Whatever causes it to jump is connected with latency, because I
       only see it jump when the WAN emultator is on.

   [3] Clean load means using shift-ctrl-del to ensure the browser's
       cache is cleared of all files immediately before visiting the
       page.  The clock is stopped when the text begins to render.

   [4] Revisit means visiting once, then restarting the browser and
       visiting again, i.e. with the files cached.


conseo said:
> Am Mittwoch, 3. April 2013, 14:56:59 schrieb Michael Allan:
> > Some bugs, and a request for help from an IE user.
> > 
> > (1) IE 8's layout of the home page is a complete mess.  And Firefox
> > takes too long.  http://zelea.com/project/votorola/home.html
> > I think both browsers have a problem with the slow download of the
> > images.  I tested at a remote site today, which I rarely do, and the
> > download time became a factor.
> > 
> > (2) Also IE 8 messes up the layout of the toolset switch in the
> > pollwiki.  The initial page is okay, but then it messes up when
> > navigating to a new page.  Again, I think this is timing related,
> > because I cannot replicate it local to the server.
> > 
> > Can anyone replicate (1, 2) on IE 8 or higher?  I'll need someone to
> > confirm the fixes once they're ready.  To test with IE, first use
> > shift-ctrl-del to clear the browser's "temporary internet files"
> > (cache).
> I have access to a Windows 7 machine and can test it.
> 
> conseo