Documentation?

[Jim Gettys]

The right way to attack this problem is, when you identify a broken GTK
application, get a copy of xscope (or whatever it is called these days),
and interpose it between the application and the high latency line, and
get a X protocol trace.

That would make it easy to locate the offending toolkit/application
problem.
                          - Jim


On Thu, 2009-04-09 at 19:38 +0200, Xavier Bestel wrote:
> On Thu, 2009-04-09 at 12:46 -0400, Jim Gettys wrote:
> > On Thu, 2009-04-09 at 18:29 +0200, Xavier Bestel wrote:
> > > On Thu, 2009-04-09 at 10:29 -0400, Jim Gettys wrote:
> > > > > Someday somehow I'll try to do some tests to check whether that's
> > > > > really true with a better optimized protocol, because right now
> > > > > everything that uses xft over a ssh tunnel is an horrible pain in the
> > > > > ass, 
> > > > 
> > > > I don't know what problem you are seeing.
> > > > 
> > > > Over ssh in particular, with compression (-C), performance is much, much
> > > > better with client side fonts than it ever was with server side fonts.
> > > 
> > > I'd hate to sound as trollish as some in this thread, but there I have
> > > to agree with Olivier: GTK2 apps are unusable over an "ssh -C -Y" tunnel
> > > whereas core-fonts apps are.
> > > I dunno exactly why, but I remember distinctly when client-side fonts
> > > were switchable in GTK, and the perf hit over ssh (over an ADSL link)
> > > was big.
> > > 
> > 
> > That is downright strange.  Are you comparing the same application? or
> > different applications?
> > 
> > GTK may be doing something really stupid internally, that has nothing to
> > do with fonts, but is related to the latency.  I've suspected as much at
> > times....
> > 
> > Please be so kind as to give us a concrete test case....
> 
> I'm afraid I can't anymore, I don't have the handy GTK1 apps which could
> be switched to code-fonts or Xft.
> 
> However I just tried gnome-terminal (with no menubar, scrollbar nor any
> other widget) and xterm in parallel over a slow ssh link, and I was
> wrong: gnome-terminal here feels snappier than xterm !
> 
> So I stand by my assertion that GTK2 apps are slower (I use them often
> over the slow ssh link and it's a pain), but I retract the explanation.
> You're right, they must do something stupid somewhere. If gnome-terminal
> can be snappy (or even not too sluggish in fullscreen), so should all
> the others.
> 
> Sorry for the noise (really),
> 
> 	Xav
> 
> 
-- 
Jim Gettys <jg at freedesktop.org>