[Qgis-developer] Disable Syntax Highlighting in DB Manager

[Lee Hachadoorian]

On 11/24/2013 09:07 PM, Lee Hachadoorian wrote:
>
> On 11/24/2013 08:10 PM, Nyall Dawson wrote:
>>> The syntax highlighting is already usable as it is, nobody else is
>>> experiencing any issue with it... Surely it can be improved, but 
>>> definitely
>>> it's not just eye candy, as it helps in writing queries.
>>>
>> I don't think it's the syntax highlighting that's the issue - I think
>> it's related to the auto complete function. I regularly see this lag,
>> and it always occurs for me when the sql window is trying to populate
>> the autocomplete drop down list. Sometimes it will take 2-3 seconds to
>> display the list, during which the window is unresponsive.
>>
>> (This is using the osgeo4w nightly builds with a Postgresql 9.3 
>> server) .
>>
>> Nyall
>
> I've created two screencasts [1] of me keying in a 310 character 
> query. With syntax highlighting enabled this took 6 minutes, while 
> with highlighting disabled it took one-quarter as long (1½ minutes). 
> The query was a query I had already composed (viewing off camera), so 
> when you see the cursor pause that is not me thinking what to type 
> next, that is me waiting for the characters buffered to hit the screen 
> so that I can continue typing. Please view the videos (Ogg Vorbis 
> format) to see what I am talking about.
>
> Occasionally there were typoes (mimicking real life typing). The 
> latency introduced by syntax highlighting aggravates typo-ing, because 
> I'm usually typing several characters ahead of the display, whereas 
> without the latency I see the typoed character right away and 
> backspace to fix it.
>
> My first thought was also that it was code completion (thought it was 
> DB round trips), but the second video shows that with highlighting off 
> and code completion on, there is no latency.
>
> Best,
> --Lee
>
> [1] https://www.dropbox.com/sh/arbqwx0pg12yufm/rNv25CKlFK
>

It seems one person has observed what I'm talking about, and two say 
they don't see the latency. If I may ask those who say they aren't 
experiencing it, is there really no latency, or is it just that waiting 
a few seconds here and there for the characters to catch up to your 
typing is not that big a deal? Obviously, this could be a difference of 
opinion as to what one person considers useful/usable or not useful/not 
usable. And also, "eye candy" was perhaps too strong of a term. Syntax 
highlighting *is* useful, I just find the latency so bad on my 
installation as to make the benefit not worth it.

BTW, I also just now tested on Windows (QGIS 2.0.1 installed with 
OSGeo4W) and found the same behavior. Latency normally, but no latency 
if I disable syntax highlighting.

Would be curious if there is a compromise that could satisfy those of 
who find this to be a problem and those of us who do not have the issue 
and want to retain highlighting. (With, of course, one possible 
compromise being that I just edit dlg_sql_windows.py every time I 
upgrade QGIS.)

Best,
--Lee