Do you suffer from keyboard latency in this forum?
Jan Simon asked
on 15 Apr 2011
Creating answers and questions is very tedious on my computer: Each keystroke takes between 0.8 and 1.5 seconds to appear in the input mask. Even if I use an external editor the workflow is such horribly slow, that I cannot feel it "flowing" at all. Of course I can type a message blindly, but this increases the number of typos even further. Then editing the message is a challenge: To delete 4 characters and insert 4 new ones, I have to wait 8 seconds plus 2 additional seconds to see, if really every keystroke was processed. Using the mouse to set the cursor yields to further problems: keyboard events and mouse events are collected in different queues. [Key1], [move cursor by mouse click], [Key2] results in: [Key1], [Key2], [move cursor by mouse click] Of course using automatic key repetition is absolutely impossible under these circumstances such that I get the ancient type-writer feeling. I admit that I'm using an older computer for the internet access and have a 36Mbps connection only. But the only limitations I get are:
Am I the only one with such problems? PS. Creating this message took 32 minutes. Products |
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16 answers
Randy Souza answered
on 12 May 2011
Accepted answer
I'd like to reassure everyone that solving this problem is a priority for us, and we hope to have some improvements in place Real Soon Now™.
Thanks for your detailed feedback and workarounds!
(I'll be sure to update Jan when we think we've improved the situation).
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Jan Simon
on 12 May 2011
Thank you! I'm looking forward to the improved interface.
It is clear that maintaining a complex system like this forum must take some time.
Jan Simon
on 22 Jul 2011
Dear Randy: It is Juli 2011 now. The latency seems to be growing. In the last 4 weeks I never get a latency < 1.0 seconds.
Please take into account that this modern forum feels like I've made a time trip to the 1200 Baud modems in the late 80th. Please tell your manager that users associate reaction times > 4 weeks with: "They do not care", or "they have forgotton me", or "they do not try to admit, that they are not able to do it".
Therefore I strongly recommend to update to *Real Soon Now v2.0* as fast as possible. "Hoping" is not enough to satisfy users, if this is TMW's mission:
"Our goal is to change the world by accelerating the pace of discovery, innovation, development, and learning in engineering and science." (see: http://www.mathworks.com/company/aboutus/mission_values/mission.html )
Thanks, Jan
Jan Simon
on 8 Jan 2012
BUMP
Dear Randy: It is January 2012 now. Although I'm using a new Windows7 computer now, it would be nice to hear if the latency problem has been fixed now.
I assume the meta-information of this question is clear.
Daniel
on 8 Jan 2012
@Jan, I still get latency. Not as often, or as bad, as you were, but it still happens.
Aurelien Queffurust answered
on 15 Apr 2011
I have no issue.
PS. Creating this message took 1 second. :)
1 comment
Jan Simon
on 15 Apr 2011
Nice for you, even worse for my emotions.
the cyclist answered
on 15 Apr 2011
I have no noticeable keyboard latency here.
1 comment
Jan Simon
on 15 Apr 2011
From which country do you access the MathWorks server?
Clemens answered
on 15 Apr 2011
Such a behaviour I experience only when working through remote desktop.
What browser are you using?
On a related matter - I immediately install NoScript and Flashblock in my browser. Using these even my old eee offers nice speed.
But I'll give this site a try on it at weekend.
1 comment
Jan Simon
on 15 Apr 2011
I'm using NoScript already to block the forwarding of my IP address to Google-Analytics.
Btw. a German web site owner was accused for using Google-Analytics, because this conflicts with the laws for protection of privacy. I do not like that Google knows which books I'm looking for at Amazon during I'm browsing on the MathWorks pages.
I'll tried it at every time of the day (except between 3:30 to 6:30 UTC) and at every day of the week in the last 2 month. The latency disappears immediately if I disable the preview by hacking the page, or if I paste a very large text block at first, such that the auto-preview is disabled automatically.
I've asked files@mathworks to insert a method do let me disable the auto-preview manually and I'm desperately waiting for this feature. Well. I think this is the problem: I should stop waiting desperately and leave this forum.
Sean de Wolski answered
on 15 Apr 2011
No issues, Jan. Mac OSX running Firefox in USA (though some argue that we're actually part of Canada ;-) ).
2 comments
Jan Simon
on 15 Apr 2011
Cruel. And I'm convinced that Walter has no latency also: Otherwise he had to start writing his answers in 2007.
Summary: No problems in Canada, USA, Austria, and no problem of the browser.
Walter Roberson
on 15 Apr 2011
I do get latency, but not nearly as much as Jan. The latency varies some with time of day, but often seems random.
Matt Fig answered
on 15 Apr 2011
I do have such issues, but very inconsistently. Over the last few days it has been driving me nuts. For a few weeks before that there was no problem. Yesterday it took 10 minutes to write a single sentence, that is for it to show up. I typed blindly then went and got some coffee and came back to the last word showing up.
Today it is better, no delay at all. I wish I could find the pattern!
I am using the latest Firefox and 1 Mbps connection. 36 Mbps is a way fast connection, Jan - at least in the rural areas of Idaho, USA. In fact, when I was on campus at MSU a few years back they had the fastest internet connection in the state: 20 Mbps. I could watch HD all day long on that connection with no problem....
2 comments
Jan Simon
on 15 Apr 2011
Walter, Matt and Jan suffer from latency, others don't. If Paulo and Matt Tearle get latency also, the pattern is clear: The server tries to get rid of the top 5 users. Or if Andrew Newel gets impeded also, the limit is 500 reputation points.
I think going paranoid is better than getting frustrated.
Matt Tearle
on 15 Apr 2011
Inconclusive answer from me: no lag at work, but lag at home. BUT work = TMW, so you'd kinda hope there was no lag there :). And home usually means I'm on my iPad far from the wireless router. So I wouldn't read much into that.
Andrew Newell answered
on 15 Apr 2011
I don't experience any latency. My download speed is 10Mbps and my upload is 500kbps - isn't the latter more relevant for keyboard latency? Like Sean de, I run Firefox on MacOSX in the U.S. (all latest versions).
Jan, if 36Mbps is a slow speed where you are, what is a fast speed?
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Jan Simon
on 15 Apr 2011
The network in the Univesity is connected to the backbone directly. My computer has two 1000MBit connectors. Gigas are not unusual for private DSL connections here. But unfortunately I'm using a WLan, which limits the speed remarkably.
Anyhow: For my upstream rate of about 16bps is ridiculous.
Andrew Newell
on 15 Apr 2011
In your position, I would compose my message in an editor first and then cut and paste.
Walter Roberson
on 15 Apr 2011
My download at home (where I was when I answered earlier) is 15 Mbps.
Jan, what do your ping times to the server show? I'm wondering if your MTU might be slightly too long for your connection and your packets are being fragmented or even dropped ?
Jan Simon
on 15 Apr 2011
@Andrew: I'm using an editor usually. But for the formatting some tiny changes are needed, e.g. for line breaks in the source code - otherwise the preview field would be absolutely useless.
@Walter: I have 22-27ms for small packets and 40ms for 512byte pakets to www.mathworks.com without any drops. I never had such experiences in other forums or telnet sessions.
Thanks to all for your assistence!
Walter Roberson
on 15 Apr 2011
It appears that I am averaging 27-32 ms from home.
Note that www.mathworks.com is not one single server. It resolves to www.mathworks.com.edgekey.net which resolves to e218.b.akamaiedge.net . From work that resolves to 96.6.160.244 and from home that resolves to 184.29.208.244 . Akamai specializes in distributed web service; it is possible that you are getting forwarded to one with bad performance.
Jan Simon
on 19 Apr 2011
@Walter: Thanks for these details. I get 38-42ms without drops for 512byte pakets to e218.b.akamaiedge.net. This is comparable to the access to other forum servers - but they do not have a live preview but need a manual trigger. I'd prefer this feature here also.
Jennifer answered
on 19 Apr 2011
I too get this issue but only occasionally - no idea why this is sometimes the case and other times it is relatively easy. Could it be just down to the number of users accessing the site?
1 comment
Jan Simon
on 19 Apr 2011
Thanks for your support. I've tried it at different times between 3:30 to 6:30 UTC, and I did not get significant differences. The problem appeared on my computer in the first week also, when the traffic was lower here.
Oleg Komarov answered
on 25 Apr 2011
Got latency problems on 26th of April for writing a longer-than-usual post, but really not severe as Jan's.
1 comment
Matt Fig
on 26 Apr 2011
I too got latency problems today. It was horrible! It was as slow as it has ever been.
Paulo Silva answered
on 26 Apr 2011
I notice no latency besides the one in my brain lol , the time it takes me to remember something is far greater than any possible latency :)
0 comments
Jan Simon answered
on 11 May 2011
- Shameless bump -
MATLAB Answers is on air for 100 days now. Congratulations! I appreciate the layout features and the (too rarely used) possibility to embed pictures. Commenting otherones answers and editing the own posts is a powerful method to improve the quality of the data base.
But the latency drives me crazy. I'm loosing too much time waiting for this GUI to process my keystrokes. The mechanism to disable the auto-preview is implemented already, but it is triggered after a huge number of keystrokes only.
I stop posting until this problem is solved. I'd apprciate it very much, if somebody could send me a message. Thanks!
2 comments
Andrew Newell
on 11 May 2011
That's a big loss to this forum. I hope they solve it soon!
Jan Simon
on 12 May 2011
Thanks, Andrew. I'm sure others will fill this gap. Until today only 1413 questions are waiting for an answer.
Andrew Newell answered
on 11 May 2011
Here is an approach that I hope will make life easier for people with keyboard latency that is not too extreme. I used it to write this question.
- Write your answer in the MATLAB editor. Comments have '% ' in front of them; code gets the two indent spaces. You can test your answer as you compose it.
- When you are ready to submit your answer, just do a global replace of '% ' by a blank, and you're in business! (Unless, of course, you happened to insert '% ' in the answer itself.)
- If you want to include the output to your commands, cut and paste it into the MATLAB editor.
Even without any keyboard latency, I prefer doing it this way for all but the shortest comments.
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Walter Roberson
on 11 May 2011
Even copy and paste can take a really silly amount of time sometimes, Andrew. I've seen it myself.
Andrew Newell
on 11 May 2011
I'm not saying it's a good situation, but at least it doesn't interfere with your thought process while composing the message.
Walter Roberson
on 11 May 2011
When it takes tens of minutes just to wait for the preview to catch up so that you can save the message, then that is a major impediment to participation.
Andrew Newell
on 11 May 2011
All right, all right! I deleted the first line from my answer. I still hope that my algorithm for composing answers makes someone's life easier.
Jan Simon answered
on 10 Aug 2011
3 weeks later after my last comment to Randy...
I gave up. Because MATLAB Answers is a valuable platform and my time is too expensive to waste it by waiting for characters to appear, I bought a faster computer. A Core2Duo 2.3GHz, 2GB, Win7-64 is enough to send some keystrokes to the TMW servers and see them appearing fluently in my browser.
Well. Forcing users to apply brute force is not a smart solution.
0 comments
Chandrakanth answered
on 11 Aug 2011
I dont post too often, but I tried this out of curiosity. No issues. On Safari, running OSX.
0 comments
Image Analyst answered
on 18 May 2012 at 2:18
I have never noticed any latency issue at all. I use Firefox and Windows 7.
0 comments
Daniel answered
on 18 May 2012 at 10:52
At times yes.
64-bit Linux and Firefox 32-bit Windows and Explorer
0 comments
Contact us at files@mathworks.com
2 comments
I tried to edit my question, but stopped after waiting for 2 minutes to insert:
EDITED: I'm accessing the MathWorks server from Germany using Firefox 3.6 with NoScript (disabling this does not help).
BUMP after Walter's new answer in the wish list.