Close down the program completely and start it from scratch.
Make a new document project.
Make some new text files under “Draft”. As many as you would think feasible in general usage.
Now, I notice two observations when I do the procedures rapidly.
If you delete some of the text files and have them move to trash (I used the “del” key), then start typing in one of the undeleted text files, it starts to slow down significantly.
If you clear your trash permanently, the same slow-down seems to happen.
Now, I noticed this on my own computer, but I’m not sure if this is what you people might be experiencing.
Other observations I’m making (and while trying this) are probably beyond the limits of what the program is designed to do (Making a lot of text files quickly, deleting a lot of them quickly), which seems to also be causes for slowdown and lagginess overall.
Hardware: ASUS 1000HE, 1.66Ghz Atom, 1 GB RAM
OS: Win XP SP3
EDITS:
I’m testing both duo-pane and single-pane views. It seems to happen a little more with duo-panes than single.
I can confirm that this is happening to me, but I’m not sure exactly why or whether I’m the only one experiencing this. Could someone else with a crappy computer (Or netbook? ) give it a shot?
If this procedure makes Scrivener lag for you, please post down your specs so Lee can attempt to isolate the problem given the varying amounts of specifications that computers have. This MAY not be the only cause, but may be an insight into one.
I had not noticed this with creating docs and deleting them rapidly.
I do know that within the editor, especially with fast typists, complex or long documents there does appear to be a performance issues that we’ll need to provide fixes for. There’s lots of things that will need to be optimised and I have raised a bug along these lines.
Do you guys have a target desire for min specs for Scrivener to run on? I do know that Netbook specs, especially the netbook I’m using tend to be on the low side and definitely not up to par with your C2D Macs and what not, so any slowdown I might experience may be due to hardware issues.
It would be interesting to note, since windows PCs have very and vastly differing specifications.
If I’m experiencing lag because of a hard-ware issue, others may be too. If you are planning to target netbook users, then this might be of a concern, albeit how completely unlikely one would make and delete that many text files within the program.
@Laxaria:
I followed the procedure you described and - yes - the editor lagged to the point of actually freezing for about 8-10 seconds.
Hardware:
Brand new (less than 6 months old) Dell inspiron mini netbook
Intel atom processor
1.66GHz speed, 1 GB RAM.
Software: XP, Service pack 3
I type at about 70wpm
The netbook is actually pretty fast and copes ok with most programs. I went ahead and made six or seven documents in rapid succession, and then tried to type and… it froze XD
EDIT:
It also gets pretty laggy if I leave it idle for a while (i.e. shrink the window and work on other things) - when I come back to it, it seems to have slowed right down.
I’m also having a lag issue, a huge one. I’ve created two chapter note cards along with a few notes on each and keywords I will be using in each chapter. When I started typing a test paragraph the first three words showed up instantly followed by a long lag. I closed and reopened the program and continued with the test paragraph at which point I timed a 33 second delay from the time I finished typing a 10 word sentence until the first word showed up.
I can reproduce a delay (generally only a second or two) by switching to a very long document (32,033 words, 183577 characters). It doesn’t hang or crash things. No delays in typing, but I’m a ponderous writer.
I should have specified on my previous post that I am actually experiencing the lag issues on my regular laptop, not my netbook (haven’t tested it there yet). My regular laptop is less than a year old and has 3G RAM and a dual core processor.
I am also having a problem. When I’m trying to write something in the document notes section, Scrivener lags for a good minute or so before showing my text. Also, a couple of letters from the beginning of my note doesn’t show up.
Did that make sense? I’m sorry if it didn’t. I’m computer-talk illiterate. . .
I did a more thorough “Stress Test” today to try to track down the source of the lag. (specs posted above, Mr. Lee-man!!)
Created new project
Created 8 or 9 pages in the draft, one after the other
Typed in one or two (a couple of sentences in each)
NO LAG
Deleted five or six pages, in quick succession
Typed another few sentences in one of the remaining documents
NO LAG
Emptied trash
NO LAG
Created a folder under “Draft” and populated it with about 8 documents
Typed a little in one document
SLIGHT LAG - barely noticable (I noticed because I type fast), but a hint that the buffer was running a bit slow
Deleted some documents from the folder, typed some more
SLIGHT LAG - mainly noticeable on the delete/retype of words spelled wrong, but still workable (if a little annoying)
Created two more folders under “Draft”. Draft now contains three folders, each with a few documents in (about 8 or 9) - plus a few stray documents not in folders
LAG APPROX. 5 SECONDS - The lag is now noticeable. The longest lag I timed at five seconds - I typed about five words, nothing but the first letter showed up, I counted five seconds and then the whole lot was there.
Deleted all of the documents in one of the folders (it had about four in it) and then emptied the trash folder
LAG APPROX. 6 SECONDS - so roughly same as before
In the now-empty folder, I created three subfolders (without documents in)
I went back to type in one of the free-standing documents.
LAG NOW APPROX. 7 SECONDS - again, the first letter shows up, then a 7 second delay, then the rest of what I typed
I created a document in the subfolder of the folder (so in Draft>Folder 1>Folder 2> new document )
LAG APPROX. 9 SECONDS - the lag is worse in the document actually contained in the subfolder, and the subfolders seem to be making the lag worse
Just to confirm, I typed about five or six words to test the buffer and then waited to see how long it took for them to show up.
This fits with the experience I had a first, when I was using my own (non-test) document - I had three folders under draft, and each folder had three sub-folders, and the subfolders had documents, and I experienced the lag.
I also experienced a more general lag with Scrivener when I first installed it, which I solved by shutting everything down, turning off the computer and then starting again from scratch (I hadn’t restarted the computer properly for over a week). This might also implicate the processor speed, because I think the processor was slow because of me being lazy and not restarting (just hibernating). But there is definitely also an issue with making folders and subfolders, as this seemed to trigger the lag for me.
EDIT
I just downloaded the update with the bug fixes… and the lag is gone!! After all my testing… However, this might indicate that the problem was to do with the dictionary? Since that was one thing that was fixed in the update file.
I’ve tried to isolate when lag appears for me. I have not kept detailed testing notes but basically this is how it went:
Create new project
Try typing in the first scene (I am using the short story template for these tests) - No lag shows up
Add lots of text to the scene and then try typing again - No lag
Create several new scenes and try to type in one of these scenes - No lag
Add lots of text to several documents then try to type again. - No lag.
Go into corkboard mode and add descriptions and status to the different documents, then return to a scene and try to type - Lag!!
Restart with new project.
Try typing in the first scene - No lag.
Enter corkboard mode and add label and description to the first scene. - No lag.
Add lots of documents to the project and try to type again. - Lag.
I have to shut off my netbook and go home soon so I cannot test further right now, but it seems that it is some sort of combination between having many documents and adding information in corkboard mode (I have not yet tested if I get the same result if I add the information through the inspector instead of the corkboard so it might be nothing to do with corkboard and just be a result of having assigned attributes like status, label, description etc… to several documents).
Ok, so I went back when I had more time and repeated the whole procedure from start to finish (see my previous post) and yes… I got the same lag. So I’m guessing when I installed the update, I restarted Scrivener, and perhaps that cured the lag problem and made it look like it went away when it didn’t.
I got the same pattern of lag as before, and can confirm a few more details:
At point (14) above, where I noted a slight lag especially when backspacing and rewriting over mistakes, I noticed this time that there is actual lag in the backspacing. So I pressed and held backspace to delete what I’d written, and there was a lag of a few seconds.
The lag is approximately 1 second per word typed into the buffer (so I typed out “This is the stress test” - 5 words - and got a five second lag) Again, I’m typing at around 70wpm
It’s slightly longer than this on the last step, where I have Draft>Folder1>Folder2> new document - but not by much, an extra second or so.
Also, can you tell I did a science degree?? I’ll be giving margins of error and control groups next… 8)
Finally, I can confirm that shutting down Scrivener and restarting it seems to eliminate the lag. So having closed the program and reopened it, when I type in the Draft>Folder1>Folder2> new document - there is no noticeable lag, and it seems to be fine.
I’m taking serious potshots at why this fixes the problem:
#1: Scrivener’s management of text and folders seems to be a little bit lacklustre than it could possibly be. Something in the code here is causing slowdowns, lags or unresponsiveness. I don’t know how the code works, but it could be tracking issues with regards to how the program recognises each document. Shutting it down and restarting it refreshes the way it handles the individual documents and removes the lag.
#2: Scrivener hates Netbooks, but I think Lee has pointed out that they do intend to target NetBooks with the product.
At least I’m not the one experiencing the problem, so this might be worth looking into.
On a more curious note, does anyone experience this slowdown in normal usage over a longer period of time, like making 10-20 document files over the course of an hour? If this causes lag, then there could be a more concerning problem, since so far, our tests have involved speed and stress and not expected, typical behaviour in normal usage.
Ok, I did some further testing, and I think the problem may be in Scrivener trying to remember where everything goes. Having closed and reopened my test project, I eliminated the lag - however, I then went and moved the documents around a bit. At first, nothing. Then, sure enough, as I started to move more and more around, in and out of folders, and folders up and down the order - the lag started to appear when I tried to type. Not as badly as before, but definitely a few seconds delay.
Did that too but using the “Tutorial” file instead. Moved things around alot; into folders, out of folders, into drafts, deleting them, the like. The lag did start coming up.
It DOES seem that the way the program handles the files is causing some performance issues, but as of yet, still isolated to NetBooks and probably computers with weaker specs (ancient computers). Lee hasn’t been able to replicate the problem on his own set-up though. Not the way I outlined it in the first post, anyway.
While I don’t know if this is causing performance issues for anyone else, it is a step forward.
) give it a shot? 
However, this might indicate that the problem was to do with the dictionary? Since that was one thing that was fixed in the update file.