NetSurf OS3.x Issues

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

I get a 404 error on this link.

Same.

[apj]

Should be fixed now.
My bad, I copied shortened url from eab.

[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.

[chris]

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

Good to hear!  I've set these as default now and uploaded a new build.
There will be various core changes, but probably nothing significant (most of the work has been on Javascript, which I can't build in without the compiler optimisation bug being fixed).

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/cdyoung/tmp/netsurf_os3.lha

It's suggested to remove all the font lines from the Choices file, I've set some better defaults.  If you want to switch back to outline fonts, you'll need to add font lines which specify outline fonts (it won't set the correct defaults)

[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.

[chris]

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 will be slower because there are more fonts to look through.  The data is cached, but lookup is just in an Exec list, so it's not particularly fast (on OS4 I've used a skiplist, but they don't exist in OS3's utility.library).  I tried using a splaytree on OS3 but it just crashed, and I couldn't see any perceivable performance benefit on OS4, so I abandoned it.
(edit sorry, I'm talking nonsense, the exec list caching is only for scaleable fonts, bitmap fonts aren't caching at all, which might be part of the problem)

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?

ISTR there have been some changes because RISC OS was having timeout problems.  If it's knocking out the network, it's probably overwriting memory.  However I notice my toolchain is out of date, as at least libcurl has been updated, so I'm rebuilding that and we can see if it helps.

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

Topaz is likely to be more reliable, as it's fixed-width, so any bugs in the layout calculations are less likely to show up.

and.... re-built with latest components, archive in usual place. (haven't tested it)

[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.

[chris]

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?

You can define fonts as you've been doing (different fonts for sans, serif, mono). I think the only difference is that AWeb lets you set the sizes for headers etc. This is mostly irrelevant with CSS. NetSurf has a default font size, and the other sizes are calculated from this (AmigaOS scales bitmap fonts if exact size is not available). If the size is defined as an absolute point or pixel height that will be respected. There's a DPI option that can affect the size on screen for those (although I don't think that works for bitmap fonts; probably screen_ydpi:72 is a good option to set to stop things going out of proportion)

Network problem is now solved.

Scrolling etc is OK.

It is still much slower than previous version with topaz font.

Odd. I don't know remember what I've changed since the previous version. I'll need to nose through the git logs.

AGA still have some problems with png pictures?? Is it because a datatypes or it can be because of FBlit or both.

Don't know. Is it just PNGs? What's the problem exactly? Have you tried friend_bitmap:0? (it's on by default now)

If it's just PNGs I can try disabling the internal decoder so it uses the datatype instead.

[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.

[Tygre]

Good to hear!  I've set these as default now and uploaded a new build.
There will be various core changes, but probably nothing significant (most of the work has been on Javascript, which I can't build in without the compiler optimisation bug being fixed).

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/cdyoung/tmp/netsurf_os3.lha

It's suggested to remove all the font lines from the Choices file, I've set some better defaults.  If you want to switch back to outline fonts, you'll need to add font lines which specify outline fonts (it won't set the correct defaults)

Hi there!

I just realised that NetSurf would not run on Workbench 3.1... Is 3.5 the minimum? Is that a strict requirement? (For example, could I hope to make it run on my 3.1 if I copy some of the 3.5 libraries?)

Cheers!

[chris]

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

Interesting.  I tried disabling the internal PNG reader so my DataTypes reader would handle PNGs, but for some reason it isn't recognising that file as an image, so it looks like my DataTypes reader is broken under OS3 (I suspect I'm using too new picture.datatype tags).

I don't have time to investigate now.

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

[chris]

I just realised that NetSurf would not run on Workbench 3.1... Is 3.5 the minimum? Is that a strict requirement? (For example, could I hope to make it run on my 3.1 if I copy some of the 3.5 libraries?)

3.5 is the minimum - it needs all the Reaction classes and newer icon.library, picture.datatype.

[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.

[chris]

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.

Which version of datatypes.library do you have?  And picture.datatype whilst you're checking version numbers?

Bad that speed is degraded so much from summer version.

I doubt I can do much about this unless you can point to some glaring error I've introduced several months ago.  I have no idea what state the bitmap code was in in that build, I only tried it here in a new build but I know I had been changing the bitmap code inbetween.  Probably there was some quick hacky code I'd put in for testing and replacing it with a working implementation has slowed it down.  Also note that fonts aren't being cached, there are so many different parameters for each open request that I'm not sure how to keep track of them... or if it is even neccessary.

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?

It should be in the window border but border gadgets appear to be completely broken in OS3.  I've added a non-border status bar in the new build (usual place).

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.

It's single tasking, so if busy you have to wait.

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

Yes there are, exactly the same amount as in the early builds, as I've made no attempt to fix them.
The bitmap font layouting is slightly broken too.