Any speed performance improvements in new Beta?

Question

Hi folks,

Just wondering, does anyone know if there are any suggested performance improvements in the new Beta?

Faster grid scrolling, faster computed fields calculation, anything like that?

Thanks and regards,

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David Corbett

Answer 1

Since lightswitch uses silverlight 5 by default, there are a few of performance enhancements in silverlight 5, if this can be said a improvement.

Answer 2

Thank you for you reply.

I suppose in the absense of anything specific from Microsoft, we'll just have to run it and see for ourselves.

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David Corbett

Answer 3

Hi David,

I can't point to any specifics in the Beta, but we do have a dedicated team working on improving performance in V2.

Regards,

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Steve Hoag Microsoft aka the Lights Witch (IEnumerable of Newt)

Answer 4

Hi Steve,

Thank you for your reply.

Sounds good.

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David Corbett

Answer 5

I can't point to any specifics in the Beta, but we do have a dedicated team working on improving performance in V2.

Wow, what a relief!!! One of my customers most important claims about my LS apps is performance. Overall, I have found that, specifically, when saving records LS is slow (I don't have facts to say *too* slow, but I do can say *just slow*). And it has been dificult for me to make users (customers) understand this point, since apps made from other productos are not. 

Again, thanks your effort to improve performance in v2 ... 

Answer 6

Hi Manuel,

One of the performance improvements is the there are now three lsml files instead of one, which should have better performance because of separating the Model Definition  between client and server. 

This means, the server won't load Screen Definitions and the client won't load DataService Definitions,  surely will have better performance.

Thx

Ryan

Answer 7

Hi Ryan,

I'm interested to know what you base this on. As far as I understand it, the lsml file provides definitions, which are loaded once when the application loads. If so, splitting the lsml file into three may result in a small improvement in start-up time, but shouldn't affect the overall performance of the application.

I could be wrong here, I'm just surprised at the suggestion, and wondered what you based it on.

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FREE custom controls for Lightswitch! A collection of useful controls for Lightswitch developers. Download from the Visual Studio Gallery.

If you're really bored, you could read about my experiments with .NET and some of Microsoft's newer technologies at http://dotnetwhatnot.pixata.co.uk/

Answer 8

Hi Ryan,

I'm interested to know what you base this on. As far as I understand it, the lsml file provides definitions, which are loaded once when the application loads. If so, splitting the lsml file into three may result in a small improvement in start-up time, but shouldn't affect the overall performance of the application.

I could be wrong here, I'm just surprised at the suggestion, and wondered what you based it on.

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FREE custom controls for Lightswitch! A collection of useful controls for Lightswitch developers. Download from the Visual Studio Gallery.

If you're really bored, you could read about my experiments with .NET and some of Microsoft's newer technologies at http://dotnetwhatnot.pixata.co.uk/

Good point!

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..Ben

Answer 9

Hi All,

Ultimately it's up to you. Please share any performance benchmarks for your applications, or even just your perceptions of performance bottlenecks. We're all working together on this.

Thanks,

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Steve Hoag Microsoft aka the Lights Witch (IEnumerable of Newt)

Answer 10

Hi Mr Yossu,

Start-up time spped up is also a performance improvement, and what I said not only improves the start-up speed, but also the memory footprint because of less Model Definitions loads.

Another performance speed up may be, the searching of Model Definitions in runtime may be faster because of less total Model Definitions loaded. In my scenario, I'm depending on searching Model Definitions a lot, for example, given a string to get the IDataType object instance.You may not have the same scenario as mine, but I believe the lightswitch internal uses some kind of searching of Model Definitions too.

The overall performance indeed has a improvement in addition to start-up speed up, although this improvement may seem tiny, since there are no official improvements lis.

Hope this helps.

Ryan

Answer 11

Hello Ryan,

Start up speed is certainly an important issue, and I would be interested to know how much (if any) improvement has been made by this change. I don't suppose it's something that could be tested easily though. Given the small size of the lsml file compared to (say) component DLLs, I would be surprised if it made much difference, but then I suppose it depends what the client does with that file. If it's doing a lot of parsing and object creation, then splitting it down could make a difference.

I'm not sure how much difference the searching would make, unless you are dealing with huge numbers of definitions, as all that is done in memory, and would be pretty fast. That's another area where I would be interested to see some testing done (and this one could be tested internally), as it could be a useful tip for increasing performance.

In my experience, the biggest drain in start up speed is loading the data. Truth is that passing data between the client and server is the one thing that slows down LS apps. It certainly seems slower than in a WPF application (which is where I have most of my previous experience). I don't know what, if anything, they've done to improve matters here, but would obviously be very happy with any speed gains.

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FREE custom controls for Lightswitch! A collection of useful controls for Lightswitch developers. Download from the Visual Studio Gallery.

If you're really bored, you could read about my experiments with .NET and some of Microsoft's newer technologies at http://dotnetwhatnot.pixata.co.uk/

Answer 12

RE: 

• "Truth is that passing data between the client and server is the one thing that slows down LS apps. It certainly seems slower than in a WPF application (which is where I have most of my previous experience)."

Can the LS Team please look into this?

Is there an architectural roadblock that would cause LS to NOT perform as well as WPF?  

It is my understanding that LS should perform as well as WPF and SL, yes?

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Garth Henderson - Vanguard Business Technology

Answer 13

I honestly hope that the team can make significant performance improvements to V2. Getting quite a few reports from customers thinking that our V1 application is a bit "sluggish..." compared to other web applications.

I think the whole experience just needs to be sped up to make the whole experience more responsive.

thanks

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Xander

Answer 14

I think going to html5 would speed up the overall performance. Hopefully we are going see it coming in v3.

Answer 15

Wow, waiting for v3 to have better speed in LS is too much. 

They already said "but we do have a dedicated team working on improving performance in V2.". So, let's be positive and expect an improvement in speed in v2.  

Thanks and bye ...   

Answer 16

Yes, I agree.

Lightswitch is a fantastic product but its potential and its progress will be impacted adversely if it doesn't speed up relatively soon.

Like you Manuel, judging by what has been delivered so far, I have great faith in the Lightswitch team...

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David Corbett