Very slow

[mihar]

Not as much a bug as I'm just curious if it's just my computer or is this normal. But triggering the hints takes about 2 seconds to appear. That is too slow to make it usable.

[ycanerol]

Same here, the delay makes it unusable. For reference I'm on macOS 10.15.5, installed via homebrew.

[viettrungphan]

@mihar thanks for letting me know, we are finding solutions for it. You can temporarily restart your MAC to improve the speed.

[lshigw]

Love this app. Just have the same lag issue here on my Apple Silicon MacBook Pro 8GB. Looking forward to the next version!

[ashtonian]

Any chance we could see the code to fix this? This is unfortunately an unusable app in current state.

[viettrungphan]

As my tested, we can't do anything, the app simple using accessibility api to query UI elements, the same code, the same UI but the query time varies between test. One more thing: I guess API using synchronous task on Main thread, I try dispatch async to query but not improve at all.

[ashtonian]

It would be great to contribute to this directly. I suspect (without any clue how the code works so with a grain of salt) there are lower level apis, and a way to cache the results given some assumptions, especially around some some specific OS X features that are used commonly that have semi static elements like the dock/menu bar. There may also be a way to make some assumptions for many common apps, although not ideal it could theoretically be done and may be easier to maintain. Are you dispatching async tasks in parallel? what apis are you using to query the ui elements?

[viettrungphan]

@ashtonian Can you help me do some small test? When you are facing slow on any application, go to System Preferences and Find for Voice Control. Enable it then focus on the app that you feeling slow, then active Voice control by say "Show numbers" then compare the speed of native Mac Voice Control with VimMotion.

[viettrungphan]

Basically app recursive call AXUIElementCopyAttributeValues to query all UIElements then filter commons UI "Label, Button, Text Field, Button, Image....". I don't want goes with cache solution because UI constantly update make cache outdate easily , StatusBar already preload and cache by default it automatically refresh when app detect new app open or close.

[ashtonian]

When I use show numbers in apps its pretty responsive, the real test though would be the desktop which is what I want to use vimmotion for and it seems like the voice controls don't account for that. Can you share a snippet of calling that accessibility api? I'd like to play with it if possible.

[viettrungphan]

Did you make the test when you facing slow on VimMotion? Problem may because your desktop don't have microphone huh?
This func using to query array of child element. The UI not simple one level, it have many child of child so you need for loop and recursive call to get all UIElements, the break point for recursive func is "nil" mean you reach leaf node of UI.

func subElements(element: AXUIElement) -> [AXUIElement]? { 
        var subElements: CFArray?
        var count: CFIndex = 0
        var error: AXError
        error = AXUIElementGetAttributeValueCount(element, kAXChildrenAttribute as CFString, &count)
        if error != .success { return nil }
        error = AXUIElementCopyAttributeValues(element, kAXChildrenAttribute as CFString, 0, count, &subElements)
        if error != .success { return nil }
        return subElements as? [AXUIElement]
    }

But you need the app root element first, get it by find App p_id

func element(from pID: pid_t) -> AXUIElement {
        return AXUIElementCreateApplication(pID)
}

For example get Dock process Id from Bundle Id:

func dockElements() -> AXUIElement? {
        guard let dock = NSRunningApplication.runningApplications(withBundleIdentifier: "com.apple.dock").first else {
            return nil
        }
        let dockPID = dock.processIdentifier
        return AXUtilities.element(from: dockPID)
    }

[italo-amaya-utec]

You can add options to exclude menu bar icons as well as a option to only query the api for the ui elements of the current app. Caching will also improve speed

[viettrungphan]

Menu prequery and cached in the background, the cache refesh when new app open or closed app.