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An 'alt+space' launcher for Windows, built with Electron

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21–30 of 65 posts

Re: An 'alt+space' launcher for Windows, built with Electron

#21
post #7

This is cute as a proof of concept, but it needs severe performance improvements if it's intended to replace Launchy. Launchy sits there with 30mb ram used and no cpu used when not in use. This launcher sits there with 170mb ram used, and 1% of a core in constant use.

Why do more people not get annoyed with the inefficiency of JS... its just burning CPU cycles and RAM! Even 30MB is ridiculous for this type of App... back in the DOS days there were similar TSRs using a few KB of RAM.

Ahh the DOS days are long gone I'm afraid... A single 1024x1024 app icon on Mac OS X weighs in at 4MB once it's inflated to raw bitmap data from ICNS / PNG. Throw a couple of those onscreen at once in a list and you're looking at 30MB easy, and that's just in images!

Of course, you could leave out the images, but you could also just keep using DOS if RAM is a concern :-)

Re: An 'alt+space' launcher for Windows, built with Electron

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do more people not get annoyed with the inefficiency of JS... its just burning CPU cycles and RAM! Even 30MB is ridiculous for this type of App... back in the DOS days there were similar TSRs using a few KB of RAM.

Ahh the DOS days are long gone I'm afraid... A single 1024x1024 app icon on Mac OS X weighs in at 4MB once it's inflated to raw bitmap data from ICNS / PNG. Throw a couple of those onscreen at once in a list and you're looking at 30MB easy, and that's just in images! Of course, you could leave out the images, but you could also just keep using DOS if RAM is a concern :-)

Are icons 1024x1024 now?!

And I still think 64x64 sounds kind of big for an icon, heh. I really need to get with the times, and get a lawn I guess.

Re: An 'alt+space' launcher for Windows, built with Electron

#26
post #7

This is cute as a proof of concept, but it needs severe performance improvements if it's intended to replace Launchy. Launchy sits there with 30mb ram used and no cpu used when not in use. This launcher sits there with 170mb ram used, and 1% of a core in constant use.

Why do more people not get annoyed with the inefficiency of JS... its just burning CPU cycles and RAM! Even 30MB is ridiculous for this type of App... back in the DOS days there were similar TSRs using a few KB of RAM.

Because the vast majority of these people don't have the slightest clue as to how computers work. No troll, no bully, no malice. They don't know and they don't want to know. They deliberately wish to remain ignorant, as evidenced by the offence they take and rationalization they make whenever someone tries to explain any of the realities of modern hardware to them.

WEB SCALE!

IO BOUND!

Forget assembly, they refuse to learn even the most basic and incredibly important consequences of the memory hierarchy. It's garbage collection and best practices all the way down.

I don't want to make fun of people. In fact, I can't make fun of people because the overwhelming majority doesn't appreciate the joke.

All I want is for people to give a shit.

Re: An 'alt+space' launcher for Windows, built with Electron

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do more people not get annoyed with the inefficiency of JS... its just burning CPU cycles and RAM! Even 30MB is ridiculous for this type of App... back in the DOS days there were similar TSRs using a few KB of RAM.

Because the vast majority of these people don't have the slightest clue as to how computers work. No troll, no bully, no malice. They don't know and they don't want to know. They deliberately wish to remain ignorant, as evidenced by the offence they take and rationalization they make whenever someone tries to explain any of the realities of modern hardware to them. WEB SCALE! IO BOUND! Forget assembly, they refuse to…

Or maybe some people just want to make a cool project for themselves and learn stuff along the way.

Re: An 'alt+space' launcher for Windows, built with Electron

#28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do more people not get annoyed with the inefficiency of JS... its just burning CPU cycles and RAM! Even 30MB is ridiculous for this type of App... back in the DOS days there were similar TSRs using a few KB of RAM.

Ahh the DOS days are long gone I'm afraid... A single 1024x1024 app icon on Mac OS X weighs in at 4MB once it's inflated to raw bitmap data from ICNS / PNG. Throw a couple of those onscreen at once in a list and you're looking at 30MB easy, and that's just in images! Of course, you could leave out the images, but you could also just keep using DOS if RAM is a concern :-)

1024 x 1024 * 4 bytes per pixel = 4MB. Ok. There's no software engineering problem there, just bafflement at wanting almost as many pixels as would vertically fill a 1080p screen, for a fucking icon.

Re: An 'alt+space' launcher for Windows, built with Electron

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the vast majority of these people don't have the slightest clue as to how computers work. No troll, no bully, no malice. They don't know and they don't want to know. They deliberately wish to remain ignorant, as evidenced by the offence they take and rationalization they make whenever someone tries to explain any of the realities of modern hardware to them. WEB SCALE! IO BOUND! Forget assembly, they refuse to…

Or maybe some people just want to make a cool project for themselves and learn stuff along the way.

I'm replying to two people upset about the ridiculous resource usage of simple modern programs. Bring it up-thread if you want to defend against literal waste, I'm just talking about why it happens.
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