O$4 vs O$3 performance

[Joe Maus]

----- Mary Whittaker <mary at healthsolve.com.au> wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I just logged this query with Omnis Tech Support and I need some  
> pretty urgent feedback.  Just wondering if any of you have any advice?
> 
> This support question is related to Omnis Studio
> Omnis Version Number: 4.3.1
> Area of query - Other
> 
> Subject of the query: Performance - Omnis Studio 3 vs Omnis Studio 4
> We have upgraded 3 of our clients from Omnis Studio 3 to Omnis Studio  
> 4. The first 2 complained a little of slower performance, but the 3rd  
> is complaining a lot!! Our application has changed a fair bit between  
> the 2 versions, so I will be trying to pinpoint what areas are slow  
> and seeing whether it is related to our code. However, I was  
> wondering whether you could give me some quick feedback on whether  
> Omnis Studio 4 is slower than 3 in general, or what other factors  
> (besides the application) may affect the performance. The client\\\'s  
> server is a G5, 1.6GHz with 1.5GB memory and workstations are  
> Core2Duo, 2GHz with 2GB memory.

I would not suspect the server is the issue.  You may want to investigate your cached classes though within the prefs of the newer Studio to make sure you're running with something that is usable.  If set too low, performance will suffer as Studio swaps stuff out of memory - and if you're running the app from the server, that can take a long time (from the user's perspective).  The thing to look at is:

$root.$prefs.$maxcachedclasses 

This is also visible from the options menu in Version 3 and $ I think of Studio.  I have it set to 900 in the apps I tend to work on as this was the number that provided the best performance.  A window with a lot of subwindows used to take something like 15 seconds to construct before we changed this parameter some years ago.  After the change it took 4 seconds.  

If the issue is the data transfer between the server and the PC - make sure the lan switches are properly configured and that your TCP/IP windows are tuned to their best throughput.  XP requires a little tweaking, but it can make a difference in most environments.  Vista's window optimization is said to be reliable and not require any modification.

You may also want to look at HELIOS file sharing software as an alternative to the built in stuff on the Mac (http://www.helios.com).  Super fast and robust stuff that is.  Not to mention somewhat expensive.

Hope this helps some,

Joe Maus