Could Plecodict be faster?

[Henry]

On my Tungsten W (OS 4, 33Mhz processor) Plecodict takes about 8 seconds to start up . . . compared to <2 seconds for the old Oxford dictionary.

I don't know what the program needs to do while starting up, but is there any way it could be faster? (I am thinking of a Mac with extensions off - relevant?)

Henry

 

[Henry]

When entering a word in english Plecodict (0.82) shows a new entry for every letter I type . . . frustrating for longer words . . .

Would it be possible to first type the word then start the search by pressing a button or 'return' (on a keyboard)?

I seem to recall a post about this, but wanted to ask again because it is really slowing things down for me.

Henry

(happy about the Penpower input and command bar access!)

 

[mikelove]

We're definitely working on some speed improvements for the finished version. Am I correct in guessing that you've got most of the PlecoDict data files stored on an SD or MMC card? Right now, whenever PlecoDict starts up it copies a few hundred K of data out of those files and into memory for faster access while it runs; in the final version, we're going to let you select an amount of storage RAM that PlecoDict can use as a permanent "cache" so that it doesn't have to copy that data over every time it starts up. This should dramatically reduce the startup time. We've got some other tricks we're working on as well.

And yes, we most certainly are planning to add a search button option in the finished version, along with a feature where the dictionary only begins a search after a certain (selectable) length of time passes without any further character input. Searches should be a little faster, too - actually a lot of the delay now is related to the font system, which isn't as speedy as we'd like it to be yet.

 

[Henry]

permanent cache

n the final version, we're going to let you select an amount of storage RAM that PlecoDict can use as a permanent "cache" so that it doesn't have to copy that data over every time it starts up. This should dramatically reduce the startup time

is this feature still in the pipeline? As much as I like the new plecodict, 8 seconds is an awfully long time to wait for it to start up . . .

(In response to your last post, I do have most of the plecodict files on the SD card, and have about 1MB free in RAM)

Thanks, Henry

 

[mikelove]

In theory, yes, in fact we've written most of the code for it, we're just worried that it might introduce some new (and serious) bugs that we'd rather not have to deal with at this late stage... If we have time, we'll probably add in the option but leave it off by default, otherwise it may (sadly) have to wait for 1.1.