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Re: V.6.0.2 gripes...

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg86567] Re: V.6.0.2 gripes...
  • From: David Bailey <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
  • Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:53:21 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <fr8b56$gu8$1@smc.vnet.net>

alexxx.magni at gmail.com wrote:
> It is just me, or the handling by Java of the new Function Navigator /
> Virtual Book is terrible? It needs a huge time to init the window, and
> its reponse time is awful, even worse than the Doc Center.
> 
> It's an old and tiring camplain, but could people stop writing stuff
> in Java, since all they obtain is to slow our PCs to a crawl???
> 
> Alessandro
> 
My experience is that there seem to be random delays in accessing the 
help system that don't reproduce too well - I almost wonder if the 
system goes and takes a look for something on the internet on occasions!


I have made extensive use of J/Link in connection with my Super Widget 
Package, and it is certainly not the case that Java is intrinsically 
slow - in fact it is comparable in speed with C. Java is compiled to 
P-code which used to be interpreted by the JVM. This made Java a slow 
language, but those days are long gone, because nowadays the P-code is 
compiled to native machine instructions just before it is executed, and 
runs well. The J/Link-Mathematica connection also seems pretty fast, but 
it obviously does involve interprocess communication, so it is important 
to use as few calls as possible.

If the delays are not internet related, there might be excessive 
Mathematica-Java communication at some point, or some sort of tricky 
waiting situation between threads.

Certainly, I agree with your general sentiment - on my 2GHz machine, I 
really can't see any reason why every documentation page should not 
display instantaneously!

David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk


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