NetSurf OS3.x Issues

[utri007]

OK I made some testing!

First I made those changes to choises file wich Chris sugggested. Performance increase was unbelievable!

friend_bitmap:1
window_simple_refresh:1
redraw_tile_size_x:100
redraw_tile_size_y:100
use_diskfont:1
font_sans:Topaz
font_serif:Topaz
font_mono:Topaz
font_cursive:Topaz
font_fantasy:Topaz

Noticed that both amigaworld.net and wikipedia.com renders correctly? What is happened? I opened wikipedia after amigaworld, no ghost images any more. No Graphics corruption at all?? Would it be that true type fonts made those graphic corruptions?? Or I don't remeber what you said about this friend_bitmap:1  was it originally only for AGA machine? Or is it just a amiga.org wich causes a problems, this time I didn't test amiga.org at all.

If you trust that Netsurf own clock amigaworld.net opens now 22 seconds, compared to arthurs version from aminet.net it took 38 seconds to render amigaworld.net. At least it feels much much more faster now. Arthur's version also corrupted screen when resizing window and eventually crash machine. Locks Computer for tens of seconds, compared to Chris version wich doesn't or does for a second for time to time.

Scrolling work nicely without true type fonts with Chris version

Tested Arthurs version was ixemul / no true type fonts version. Clib2 version didn't start at all.

Arthurs version also consumes more than 10mb more memory.

I also made fast test with my AGA / 68040 machine, even with that machine amigaworld.net opens 34 seconds. It even has 8mb ram free from 34mb after that (1.5mb chip and  7.2mb fast). Tried to made tests with Arthur's AGA version, but it crash machine after it renders start page.

So Chris, would you be kind and continue work with this, it is already useable. Considering that it has NONE optimications, wondering how fast it could be?

Notice one little annoying feature. I mistyped address, it took minits to timeout.

[utri007]

It works, but it is slower than perivous version with Topaz font. Can't say how much, it doesn't display done text anymore.

It also has a new problem, is shoot down my Network from both amigas. I can download one page, after that it says "dns lookup failed", when I try to browse another web page. Need to reboot amiga, to get it back online. I also tested amia.org, it displayded very fast "dns lookup failed", did you made some changes for timouts?

Amiga.org doesn't display right, but ghost images are gone.

Quiting takes ages and freeing memory also, but it does it.

I will test it with Topaz fonts to see does it make any difference.

[utri007]

Some tests more, changing font back to topaz didn't speed up things. However  quitting  program is fast. Is it even possbile, or was it because I just opened amigaworld.net nothing more? It still much faster than with true type fonts and scrolling is OK.

Network is a problem, it does it every time, I can surf just a one page, after that I need to restart tcp/ip stack. It also does it time to time from start page.

[utri007]

I would say that Topaz or any other hand defined font is OK, if speed diffrence is that big. Bad that there is no way to define font like AWeb does?

68k has it limitations, so better just accept them. Better have faster than prettier.

[utri007]

Network problem is now solved.

Scrolling etc is OK.

It is still much slower than previous version with topaz font. AGA still have some problems with png pictures?? Is it because a datatypes or it can be because of FBlit or both.

[utri007]

I let netsurf open for a few hous, network dind't work after that. Somebody else should test this also, so that it is not just my network.

I'm prety sure that it just a png pictures, like this http://www.hollywood-mal.com/img/plananarama_small.png

So far best and fastest Netsurf version out. Thanks. Though previous version from summer was faster with topaz fonts. Now is only little bit faster than other one, it just works much more reliable.

[utri007]

edit actually, scratch that, it looks like I'm using some datatypes.library v45 features, and I'm on v44 here so they don't work.  If you're on OS3.9 it will probably be OK.  Try http://homepage.ntlworld.com/cdyoung/tmp/netsurfnopng.lha

Tested, it seems to disable png images? Somebody else should test this also. Even in startup page has a png image, if it is trashed problem is with all AGA users. I tested it without FBLit didn't help.

Download works now thanks. This is starting to be usefull.

Bad that speed is degraded so much from summer version.

Am I right but time calculator is now in bottom of Windows and it is "displayed" outside of window, so that it is not visible?

Could it be possible / easy to make so that quitting is fast any time? If Netsurf is doing somethin, it doesn't allow quiting, it can take minits before it quits.

There a still some display / rendering problems, like amigaworld menus.

[utri007]

What ever you did for it last summer, you did it right. It was twice as fast than it is now.

Downloading amigaworld.net takes 45.4 seconds (22 seconds) and surpricingly my 040 amiga does it same time 45.9 seconds.

I can log on to the amigaworld.net, but it takes about a 5 minits. Also after that there is starange screen corruption. See attached picture. Nothing like this hasn't happened before with this version.

Is it possible to make it stop, at least downloading page?? After that Quit would be fast?

My datatypes.library is 44.47

PS. May I suggest that you fix what you can? Not spend too much time to those problems, wich takes too much energy. It could be possible that you found solution one day, it is perfectly useable now. Maybe you could fix preferences? Note also, that you are best to say what to put users/choises file

[utri007]

Chris as a Oldsmobile_Mike  said, I would also hapily pay for a working solution.

Oldsmobile_Mike : I don't belive that there is no way that we could never use our 68k amiga for general web browsin, not even if there where CSS capable iBrowse. What would make me happy would be possibility to download files, if needed without going to another machine.

Did you try new build or old build with those swicthes?

[utri007]

You can turn off tiled rendering by setting the tile sizes to the same as your screen size (or 0, possibly).

How I do that, it should be tested. If porblem is only with tiled rendering, maybe it could be disable as default?

Is it possible to make it stop, at least downloading page?? After that Quit would be fast?

Acting on the close gadget click already happens as fast as it can. If it is doing heavy layout work it doesn't necessarily yield to the GUI very quickly. All the layouting, downloading and GUI events happen on the same process. Most people don't decide to quit a web browser whilst it is still downloading the last page they requested!

Think that this would be useable now, when Netsurf doesn't work 100% right. Like those time outs with loging amigaworld.net. If I try to close browse, it quits after 5 minits, when it gets time outed.  Also with such a limite raw CPU power, it is easy get a situation where browser is occupied several minits. Of course if this is hard or imposible to do, then situation is what it is.

I also doubt that Oldsmobile_Mike problem is related to time outs?. For me it just terminated lan/web and didn't react anything. Could it be that Netsurd tries to do something and there is no time out for that?

[utri007]

Picture.datatype is 45.17

Reinstalled Netsurf and noticed that it is slow, amigaworld render took 80 seconds. I made changes to choises file, it was fast again.

My choises file is :

theme:PROGDIR:Resources/Themes/Default
pubscreen_name:Workbench
window_simple_refresh:1
redraw_tile_size_x:100
redraw_tile_size_y:100
use_diskfont:1
font_sans:Topaz
font_serif:Topaz
font_mono:Topaz
font_cursive:Topaz
font_fantasy:Topaz

Should friend_bitmap be ON or OFF? 0/1 or totally removed from choises file?

How do I do this : You can turn off tiled rendering by setting the tile sizes to the same as your screen size (or 0, possibly).

[utri007]

I checked Chris' home page, there is no donate button.

[utri007]

Tile size y/x 0/0 doesn't work it has miniums and maximum size.

But I noticed that from menu Browser - > Images and disable background images, solves prety much every display problem. Even Amiga.org looks about right. Menu text are readable etc. nothing is in wrong place etc. Even logging to amigaworld.net doeasn't take more than 87 seconds, or is this just a coinside?. Hope this helps.

There is no config under the about, there is a credits and license.

You have hidden that donate button very well in your home page.

[utri007]

I tested tile size 1024/768 it didn't work OR was so slow that my patience ended. It didn't gave any errors like 0/0 did.

No, probably not. A lot of the background images are repeated tiles - on OS4 I use layers.library's backfill functions to tile plot very efficiently. On OS3 I can't do that, so it's probably my old slow (and seemingly broken) code. That would certainly explain some of the performance problems. I don't know why it fixes the rendering, but that's interesting useful information, thanks.

Would use of Thomas Richter's back port of OS4 layers.library help and make things significantly easier?

[utri007]

Tested, I think that loop is still there?  But it indeed looks now some way different?

Second pic is without background. Looks good. If I disable background, I can't turn it ON again from menu/gui. Need to edit user/choises file.

[utri007]

Congratulations Chris. well done. Need to test new build this evening.

Working nice now but still slow. I cant adjust any of the prefs if I go into settings. Also I noticed if I play with the scale setting and reduce it the screen gets very angry and doesnt redraw properly. It starts to mix up previous screens with new. If I return it back to normal it fixes itself.

Looking forward to the day this is optimised and works as well as Ibrowse for general browsing if that happens!

If you but something like this to user/choises file it is much faster.

use_diskfont:1
font_sans:Topaz
font_serif:Topaz
font_mono:Topaz
font_cursive:Topaz
font_fantasy:Topaz

Matthey suggested these fonts http://www.amiga.org.ru/websurf/

I also managed to get Duktape to compile and to run with Sami Vaarala's help... It is quite easy to use and fast actually!!!

This is interesting, would this be usefull with netsurf? How modular it is, would it allow easily external java script engine? What are term of use with Ducktape?