GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 708451
Is it necessary to initialize all available synthesizers when entering the preferences dialog?
Last modified: 2018-02-08 12:57:50 UTC
As identified in bug 707708, Orca initializes all available synthesizers when entering the preferences dialog. I am fairly certain that we do this in order to be responsive when the user makes on-the-fly changes, having selected a synthesizer that is not currently being used. Whether or not we can initialize these upon selection and still be responsive should be determined.
Adding 2 cents, feel free to ignore: if all the synthesizers are initialized at preferences startup, isn't it making this dialog appearing with a delay? I bet entering preferences is mostly done to change other setting, not the synthesizers. And it may be done dozens of times during daily orca usage. So to minimize the cumulative delay, I believe that extra synthesizers should be initialized only when necessary.
(In reply to comment #1) > And it may be done dozens of times during daily orca usage. I find this unlikely. For the sorts of settings users may have a need to change frequently, there are commands so that they can be quickly changed without the need to get into the preferences dialog. Orca also has settings "profiles" which can be quickly cycled through via keyboard shortcut. And for settings which are customized on a per-app basis, once the user has configured them, Orca automatically switches for them when the app in question becomes (or stops being) active. I agree that one should not initialize the extra synthesizers for the sheer hell of it, which is why I opened this bug and will investigate it.