5 ms·

I have liked Calibre when I have used it a few times, but the GUI is pretty slow compared to most software these days. I attributed it to using python, but mayb

I have liked Calibre when I have used it a few times, but the GUI is pretty slow compared to most software these days. I attributed it to using python, but maybe thats not the case? has anyone else found some speed hacks that make it easier to use? (or maybe its time for me to upgrade the machine it resides on?)

berkut 13y ago
I'm pretty certain it's the Python side of things making it slow - I've been involved in a project which converted its PyQt interface to a native C++ Qt one, and the UI speed up in terms of responsiveness was significant.
- the_mitsuhiko 13y ago
  Dropbox is written in Python too and the UI is far from sluggish.
  - berkut 13y ago
    It depends what the interface is doing - if it hasn't got deeply-nested layouts and widgets (like dropbox - it's just menus and simple dialogs), you can get away with it. If you've got resizable windows with split nested views containing things like column lists or trees, you notice the overhead a lot more.
Blahah 13y ago
There are plenty of blazing fast GUIs written in python; that's not the problem.
- slashclee 13y ago
  Such as... ?
  - aoloe 13y ago
    mypaint?
  - signed0 13y ago
    Sublime Text 2 & 3.
    - krelian 13y ago
      Sublime Text 2 is written in C++ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2822114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2822114
  - xioxox 13y ago
    My Veusz plotting package is pretty responsive and is written with PyQt. A few of the inner loops were recoded into C++, but the majority of the code is python.
  - msh 13y ago
    Dropbox
  - jablan 13y ago
    Kupfer and Gajim
  - Blahah 13y ago
    Dropbox, Anki, FreeCAD
StevePerkins 13y ago
The slow startup time and general sluggishness was due to inefficiency with the database backend, rather than the GUI code itself. The biggest new feature in 1.0 is a re-write of the 0.x data access layer. The application now starts almost instantly, and is much more responsive in general.

berkut 13y ago

I'm pretty certain it's the Python side of things making it slow - I've been involved in a project which converted its PyQt interface to a native C++ Qt one, and the UI speed up in terms of responsiveness was significant.

the_mitsuhiko 13y ago
Dropbox is written in Python too and the UI is far from sluggish.
- berkut 13y ago
  It depends what the interface is doing - if it hasn't got deeply-nested layouts and widgets (like dropbox - it's just menus and simple dialogs), you can get away with it. If you've got resizable windows with split nested views containing things like column lists or trees, you notice the overhead a lot more.

Blahah 13y ago

There are plenty of blazing fast GUIs written in python; that's not the problem.

slashclee 13y ago
Such as... ?
- aoloe 13y ago
  mypaint?
- signed0 13y ago
  Sublime Text 2 & 3.
  - krelian 13y ago
    Sublime Text 2 is written in C++ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2822114 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2822114
- xioxox 13y ago
  My Veusz plotting package is pretty responsive and is written with PyQt. A few of the inner loops were recoded into C++, but the majority of the code is python.
- msh 13y ago
  Dropbox
- jablan 13y ago
  Kupfer and Gajim
- Blahah 13y ago
  Dropbox, Anki, FreeCAD

StevePerkins 13y ago

The slow startup time and general sluggishness was due to inefficiency with the database backend, rather than the GUI code itself. The biggest new feature in 1.0 is a re-write of the 0.x data access layer. The application now starts almost instantly, and is much more responsive in general.