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Michael Boldischar

CPU and Memory Usage

Pen 2.0 has really high CPU and memory usage while it’s being run. I can’t tell what it’s doing in the background.

I noticed that Pen 2.0 did away with the “Load Project Progress” progress bar. I liked that bar because I knew that once a project loaded, Pen would be responsive and ready to use. Does the new Pen constantly check the hard disk for changes? It would be nice to have an indication of what it’s doing in the background. Is there a way to tell? Does Pen 2.0 ever finish its work and release it’s resources?

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    Ian Mathew

    Michael,

    Thank you for the question, and for using PEN. I see two different issues with this question: one which I can answer now, and one which will take a bit of investigation. The first issue is regarding the “Load Project Progress” bar. This bar has been removed because PEN no longer loads the local project in that way. When PEN loads, and you see no progress bar, it means that you can use PEN. Once the application is displayed, it shoul be a matter of seconds before PEN can be used. Rather than loading all local files, PEN only loads the top level for a project. When an item in the tree is selected, PEN loads its sub-items. This “Lazy-loading” scheme allows PEN to operate without loading unnecessary files and folders.

    The second issue is memory use in PEN. I am not sure what could be causing high memory use, but I will investigate. I have not noticed spikes in memory, but I may have overlooked something. I will add an additional reply to this question once I have investigated this report of memory use. Please let me know if you have any further issues with PEN.

    Thanks,

    Ian Mathew NEEScomm IT

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    1. Michael Boldischar

      Ian, Thanks for the response. Part of the problem was solved by rebooting the virtual machine I was running Pen 2.0 on. I haven’t noticed any problems since them. I’ll let you know if it occurs again.

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      1. Ian Mathew

        Michael, I appreciate your reply, and I am glad PEN has started working better for you after reboot. However, I did some investigation and found quite a few areas in which PEN could improve. In my development environment, I have managed to cut PEN down to about 25% of previous memory usage on startup, and around 60% after performing several tasks. I will continue making improvements, and will release a version 2.0.2 as soon as possible. I appreciate your bringing the excessive memory usage to my attention, and will work hard in future versions to keep memory and CPU usage as low as possible. Thanks, Ian Mathew NEEScomm IT

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      2. Ian Mathew

        Michael, I appreciate your question and feedback. I modified several aspects of PEN to make better use of resources. As a result, PEN 2.0.2 should use around 40% less memory than before, and should start much more quickly. PEN 2.0.2 has been released today. Please let me know if you observe any inefficient behavior in PEN, or if you have suggestions for fixing such behavior.

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