[annotator-dev] Problem with 1.2.x performance on long documents

[Michael Widner]

Hi all,

I've discovered that when loading annotations on a long document (think: 
a novel), the performance degrades so severely that it becomes unusable 
for many people. For me, the test I'm looking at takes 16 full seconds 
to finish setting up annotations. The offending call happens at from 
Util.getTextNodes().

The problem, if I'm understanding it correctly, is that it's having to 
walk the entire, very large DOM searching for all the text nodes. Has 
anyone else tried running Annotator on a long text? If so, did you find 
any work-arounds for the performance problem? Without rewriting the 
involved routines, the only solution I can think of is to only load 
annotations on the visible screen, but that's also a significant change.

I'd very much appreciate any ideas or help.

Thanks,

Mike

-- 
Michael Widner, Ph.D.
Academic Technology Specialist
Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages
Stanford University Libraries
Pigott Hall, Room 108
450 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA 94305
t: 650-798-9485