Folks will like the upcoming Ext JS 3.1.1 release

[meroy]

Hi there,

I have a small patch set that I apply to the current build. The patch is very small. I began comparing Ext JS 2.3.0 and the current build. The path taken last night was simply this:

1. I pulled up the portal demo running 2.3.0 and another portal demo using the current build.
2. My focus was basically to follow the path for collapsing and expanding the west border region.
3. Immediately, I saw something during profiling. The current build had numbers double that of 2.3.0 for some function calls.
4. It's an overhead somewhere and I wanted to find it.

##
## Enjoy the results :)
##
 
                                # of calls
          # of calls            Max/Restore
 Build    (40 tabs)     Time    Window Size    Time
========  ==========  ========  ===========  ========
 3.0.3      477,580     5.691     399,909      9.466
 3.1.0      404,538     5.829     246,995     11.327
 R.5994     418,970     5.692      31,848      0.811
 R.C3       402,543     5.468       5,246      0.557

Notes:

<!-- Buffer resize is set to false in index.html -->
<script type="text/javascript">
Ext.Container.prototype.bufferResize = false;
</script>

The Max/Restore Window Size combines both maximizing and restoring the window size.

The times above are in number of seconds and measured with profiling enabled.
Therefore, it's faster when not profiling.

How does the new Firefox stack up against IE 6 and 8?
Tests were done against the R.C3 build.

 Browser    Form     Grid     Editor    Table
=========  =======  =======  ========  =======
 IE 6.0     1.125    0.625    1.609     4.125
 IE 8.0     0.624    0.546    1.061     2.387
 FF 3.6     0.874    0.586    1.173     1.665

Resizing is nice with Firefox. Things sizes and falls into place nearly as fast as IE 8.

I will share my R.C3 delta with the dev team. It's very small and applied to the current build.

I need to run some additional tests. So far all looks good. Also keep in mind that the current build is also nice.

Kind Regards,
Mario

[meroy]

The number of calls are higher with 3.0.3 compared to 3.1.0. The reason is that 3.1.0 is when all the unrolling of many Ext.each statements to for loops occured.

[robgallen]

Nice work. Any chance you can also compare IE 6 and 7? The majority of our users are still on these versions (sadly).

[jay@moduscreate.com]

I am so glad that the ExtJS team is working with you on this.

[brookd]

Performance in IE is for me, still the biggest challenge in launching the app I am working on. Any and alll improvements are welcomed

[Eric24]

@meroy: Thanks for the good work! For my education, can you explain two things to me:
1) You set bufferResize=false; this seems counter-intuitive to me. Is the purpose of bufferResize not to reduce the number of container layouts? Seems like you would want this enabled for best performance???
2) When you mention "unrolling Ext.each statements", I assume you are referring to changing Ext.each to simple for() loops to eliminate the per-item function call inherent with in Ext.each? While this would certainly seem to be more efficient (I've never been a big fan of Ext.each), have you done any benchmarks to see how much performance benefit this really yields?

[Jamie Avins]

@meroy: Thanks for the good work! For my education, can you explain two things to me:
1) You set bufferResize=false; this seems counter-intuitive to me. Is the purpose of bufferResize not to reduce the number of container layouts? Seems like you would want this enabled for best performance???
2) When you mention "unrolling Ext.each statements", I assume you are referring to changing Ext.each to simple for() loops to eliminate the per-item function call inherent with in Ext.each? While this would certainly seem to be more efficient (I've never been a big fan of Ext.each), have you done any benchmarks to see how much performance benefit this really yields?

1) This due to how the logic works in ContainerLayout's onResize. I wouldn't recommend changing it in general as it can cause layout issues. 3.1.2 will address this more directly.
2) I don't remember the specific numbers, but it was easily enough to refactor back into the base.

[Eric24]

On #1, are you saying that I should or should not set bufferResize=false in 3.1.0 and/or 3.1.1?

[meroy]

On #1, are you saying that I should or should not set bufferResize=false in 3.1.0 and/or 3.1.1?

Leave it as is for 3.1.1-rc or the upcoming 3.1.1. Basically, don't set it.

I had set bufferResize to false for normalizing the data.

[meroy]

Nice work. Any chance you can also compare IE 6 and 7? The majority of our users are still on these versions (sadly).

I added results for IE 6. I find that IE 8 is a nice browser for running Ext JS driven apps in addition to webkit based browsers.

Jamie is working on something for the 3.1.2 release. That will make Firefox more enjoyable to use as it will further minimize the calling of getComputedStyle I believe.