Unusable designer under VM/Ubuntu

[rik_rs]

Hello everybody! This is my first post.
I'm studying Lazarus in the hope to have it as my main language for desktop/multiplatform development.

The first problem I face is the designer in GTK2 environment under a virtualbox machine with Xubuntu or Ubuntu 10.04.
While the same VM config works great with Lazarus Win32, the designer under ubuntu is unuseable: to move a button it takes 4 seconds. No chance to see real time movements.
CPU goes to 100% as I try to make something on position/dimension of a simple button.
I tried other kind of software: Gambas, Gimp (GTK2), Open Office: all work great but Lazarus designer.

I've also tried to disabled all features on the option->Form Editor, but nothing better.

Some tips other than buying a Cray-X or not using a VM or not using Ubuntu?

It is for academic curiosity more than for real necessity, since finally I'll use it without VM and for now it works great on Win32 VM guest.
Only... I could have sworn this product was better working on Linux than Windows.

My next try will be trying Lazarus on a VM with guest Kubuntu or Ubuntu 11.

Rik.

[Bad Sector]

Try to disable Unity and 3D composition (if enabled) and use some simple theme, like GTK+'s native Raleigh.

[rik_rs]

At the moment I've only tested Ubuntu and Xubuntu both in v. 10.04 and there is not Unity.
No 3D enabled.
Visual effects: none
Background: none
Themes: I tried those on the list but the slowness is too much to be coped by a less complicated theme. It's a matter of some Lazarus designer problem. I am curious to test code:blocks with it's wxSmith designer too see what's going on...

[rik_rs]

New try: glade with GTK2
Result: No problem

To confirm is not a matter of pure GTK2 or theme, there is also the fact that Lazarus designer is able to resize or move the form very quickly. The problem arise trying to move a component on the form.
So the problem is not about drawing or redrawing, but operations that Lazarus does to calculate something and this is 1000 times heavier than simply drawing.

I have also tried plain, bicolor theme and nothing change at all.

[rik_rs]

Distro tested under VirtualBox (host XP)
Ubuntu 9.10
Ubuntu 10.04
Ubuntu 11.04
Xubuntu 10.04
Lubuntu 11.04
Kubuntu 11.04
Debian 6 lxde

There are basically no differences: the form editor eat up all the processor time.
Using XP as guest OS is very smootly such as working out of the VM.

There is a HUGE difference between win32 and the GTK+ version. Maybe it is hidden to view without a VM, but the difference is anyway there.

[rik_rs]

I found a great benefit from v 0.9.30: very faster then 0.9.28.

0.9.30 + debian-6.0.2.1-i386-xfce+lxde-CD-1.iso
is a good solution for my VM (virtualBox).
It is now pretty usable also without CPU hardware virtualization.

[BigChimp]

Hi rik_rs,

Welcome and thanks for the research.

I assume you have the Virtualbox guest additions installed in all your Linux VMs?

[rik_rs]

Yes of course, but for curiosity, I've tested also without and specifically on the form designer there is no difference (despite the difference is evident on all the other things).

To conclude the research I've also tested again 0.9.30 on
Ubuntu 10.04
Ubuntu 11.04
Xubuntu 10.04
Lubuntu 11.04
Kubuntu 11.04 (not tested)
Debian 6 lxde

and despite Debian 6 lxde is the fastest in general, the form designer is now behaving the same on every distro and is OK also on Ubuntu 10.04 and 11.04.

However I'll use Debian 6 lxde for overall performance gain.

PS: in the meantime, Lazarus team has solved another bug I sent 
http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=19706

[JuhaManninen]

PS: in the meantime, Lazarus team has solved another bug I sent 
http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=19706

No, that was solved much before your bug report.

In general it doesn't make sense to report bugs in Lazarus 0.9.28 because it is so old (2+ years or something).
Even 0.9.30 is old already. It was released on March (not so long ago) but the release branch for it was forked already last year.
It means the development branch, trunk, is way ahead of 0.9.30.
If you want to test the latest and greatest features, I can recommend trunk. It is stable and usable most of the time.
Lazarus development happens with good speed but time between releases is long. That is a problem.

Bugs should preferably be reported against trunk. The bug-fix may be applied to fixes branch (0.9.30.x), too, but it always goes to trunk first.

Juha

[rik_rs]

Got it!

PS: Why not updating the 1 millions Linux repo to, at least, 0.9.30? If it's quite OK the trunk, the 0.9.30 should then be published. I think it's useless to spread the bugged 0.9.28 when we can spread a supposedely less bugged 0.9.30 with better features: at least the gtk 0.9.30 works decently on a VM.

[JuhaManninen]

PS: Why not updating the 1 millions Linux repo to, at least, 0.9.30? If it's quite OK the trunk, the 0.9.30 should then be published.

Lazarus 0.9.30 has been published but for some reason most Linux distro maintainers have not updated their repos yet.
Partly it is a question of advertizing and visibility. For most people this looks like a "secret" project.
Some kind of "Lazarus public relations" project should be started. Technically this project is already better than many loudly-hyped projects.

Juha

[rik_rs]

That's really a very great problem as I said in the thread about the future of Lazarus where I also posted links to Ubuntu pages where in Development area you can find Python, Gambas, etc. but Lazarus! That is: we have a full IDE, with 2 way designer, multi platform, compiler+linker for real executables, etc., etc., and 80% of developers doesn't even know it exists, and even almost unknown around GNU/FLOSS community! Ubuntu tell about GAMBAS  and don't even mention Lazarus!

Take a look
https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/programming/C/programming-development-tools.html
Geany! Eric!

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Programming#Development%20Environments
wxBasic, sdlBasic, PuppyBasic, Vala, Geany.... no Lazarus.
The community push new developers on ridiculous projects (at least against Lazarus) but no mention to Lazarus!
It sounds like speaking of Rome monuments forgetting to cite the Colosseum!