macvim-dev / macvim-dev/macvim

Mac ligature rendering results in slow scrolling when cursorline is not set

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#746 2 comments 2 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Dominant language
Vim Script
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Description

Update to the latest version of MacVim and make sure to do this:

set macligature
set nocursorline
set norelativenumber

Scroll up and down using a trackpad, and make sure to use a high enough resolution screen so the lag is noticeable. To have a reproducible benchmark, you can also maximize MacVim, open a large file, and run this Ex command from the top of the file:

let g:profstart=reltime() | for i in range(1,30) | exec "normal \<C-E>" | redraw | endfor | echo reltimestr(reltime(g:profstart)) . " seconds"

This happens because in Vim, a couple commits went in to make sure cursorline (90a997987d and 1b7fefcbce) and relativenumber (bd9a53c06c) don't cause scrolling performance issues, but MacVim's ligature rendering function redraw_for_ligature is copied from the old redraw_for_cursorline which redraws the whole screen when scrolling instead of only updating the selected lines. I don't know if redraw_for_ligature can be so easily updated though, because it would require scanning the lines to see which line needs to be redrawn.

I think there's also currently a bug as a result, in that if cursorline is set, ligatures won't render correctly when you scroll because redraw_for_ligature explicitly decides not to do anything if it detects cursorline is on probably because it was relying on the old "clear everything" behavior.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start at MacVim's redraw_for_ligature function and compare it with the Vim changes in commits 90a997987d, 1b7fefcbce, and bd9a53c06c. Reproduce the lag with macligature, nocursorline, and norelativenumber using the supplied benchmark on a large file. Done means scrolling no longer redraws the whole screen and ligatures remain correct when cursorline is enabled.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
macos, vim
Domain
desktop, performance
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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