Programs like Acrobat.

[samuel1]

At my office, I recently built a brand new PC. It was expensive, and I packed it with a high-end i7 and Crucial M4 SSD. It is pretty damn fast by any measure. However, I've noticed that no matter how blazing fast your rig is, some programs will always run slowly.

My rig at work is an imposing, black full tower. When using Acrobat, often the software will lock up while initiating some basic feature like the Typewriter Tool. I notice the delay occur on computers fast and "slow" alike. So, it makes me wonder -- is it the programming? If so, what kind of programming would cause delays that are independent of the overall capabilities of the underlying hardware?

I do a lot of 3d rendering and other work that pushes my CPU/GPU/RAM to their limits; but I notice with programs like Acrobat that never cease to amaze me -- despite all the most advanced CPU, RAM, Disk I/O, GPU, etc. -- it's still "slow" and freezes up. Can't help but wonder what the cause is.

 

[CycloWizard]

I think Acrobat is so bloated now that it performs poorly on every system. It also checks for updates (and, sadly enough, finds one) all the time. I wish they would publish a "lite" version that just let me read PDFs without all of the extra garbage. I know there are third-party equivalents around that accomplish this, but I can't use those on all the systems I need.

 

[jolancer]

maynot help you guys but... for anyone looking for the best acrobat reader alternative, this is the smallest fastest best iv ever seen.. for windows. I don't know what else it might beable to do i just use it for reading pdfs. hellofa lot faster then acrobat

http://guti.is-great.org/static.php?page=SumatraPDFOpt

 

[William Gaatjes]

On my home program pc, i still use acrobat pdf reader 7.0. I found out that to make it fast, i had to remove specific plugins from the plugins folders. With use of the trial and error method, i found out what plugin i really need. Without all those unused plugins, it starts a lot faster and is a lot more responsive.
I have not had any pdf that i could not open with pdf reader 7.0.

On work, we use the latest adobe and that is a resources consumer.
I also have foxit on every pc installed.
But beware, foxit comes with adware if you do not unclick several adware options during installation.

That Sumatra pdf seems interesting.

 

[oynaz]

I think the OP is talking about Acrobat, not Acrobat Reader.

 

[C1]

The issue reported in the OP always was the case. You can bring a super computer to its knees by putting it in simple short one line of code loop.

Some of the Corel graphics software for PC was (seems still is?) pretty bad also. We used to speculate that this was because it was code for MAC recompiled to run on PC.

I recall a demo wherein a 486 computer using C++ compiled code was easily able to be used as a navigation emulator to AN/YUK43. This simulation easily processed large amount of data and fed large bi-directional data buffers to the militarized computer in realtime at 16 cycles per second - multiple I/O - no sweat.

Even at my last job developing C2 architectures using P4 processors and WINXP, use of certain DOS commands for search/find and re-packaging text kicked ass for speed (eg, was effectively instant with monstrous text files) and was preferred over other available alternatives.

 

[cantholdanymore]

When using Acrobat, often the software will lock up while initiating some basic feature like the Typewriter Tool. I notice the delay occur on computers fast and "slow" alike.

Checking for some sort of license?

 

[Modelworks]

I use pdfxchange viewer. It works well for me and handles large files and heavy graphics content pdf better than anything I have used.
http://www.tracker-software.com/product/pdf-xchange-viewer/

 

[Tarvaln]

I've been a fan of Foxit.

 

[samuel1]

Thanks for all your replies. I understand there are alternatives out there that are quicker. But, I suppose it comes down to what C1 mentioned about a single loop bringing down a super computer.

It seems to me that we've reached the point of diminishing returns. I notice hardly any difference between an i5 or i7 system these days. I've had a Raptor X since 2006, and these days with an M4 SSD using native SATA 3 ports -- there's hardly any noticeable different in boot times for Windows or application launch speed.

I feel like we've seen the end of fast-ness on the desktop/laptop for general purpose use.

Now, don't get me wrong -- the difference between an i5 or i7 is big for certain tasks like 3d rendering, brute-forcing passwords or transcoding DVDs. But, you know, I can't help but laugh when a non-technical person asks me if they should get the "faster processor" Mac these days.

It just makes no difference to them for general purpose computing.

 

[sm625]

There's a lot of bad programming everywhere. A bad program will scan your entire registry, try to access a local server or even a server across the country, and/or read/write the heck out of your hdd. Then they'll throw in an unwanted floppy drive access in just to spite you.

 

[BrightCandle]

It could be a few things:
1) There is a piece of code that is not benefiting from modern cpu architecture for whatever reason and it does not get faster in recent models. It might not respond well to additional clock speed either. Chance = unlikely
2) The software is calling home on the network and that takes time. Chance = very likely
3) The software is going to sleep waiting for something to sync and the sleep time is set a little to high. Chance= possible.

Could just be it has a lot to do on start. Rather than guessing, open up the performance monitor and watch the CPU, HDD and network and see where it is spending its time.

 

[MustISO]

I use process monitor and process explorer to watch what's going on when the system seems slow to do something. It's amazing to see how much crap goes on behind the scenes.

 

[cl-scott]

The nice thing is that, as much as Adobe doesn't like people outside of government officials who review contracts, PDF is an open format. So if Adobe's software is awful, you can use something else.

There's not much you're going to do to improve coding quality. Like many other segments of the corporate world, we're starting to see some of the results of a long series of short-term decisions designed to improve some manager's quarterly bonus, with no real concern given to the problems it will create later on. Once upon a time, Adobe was a small company full of idealistic people who hit on a good idea... Then as they grew, you end up with more and more layers of management who all have to justify their existence somehow, and most never stay in a job more than a couple of years, so by the time the negative effects catch up with the product, they've moved on to some other company.

All you can really do is try and keep ahead of this by moving from one small company full of idealists to the next as the previous one has the soul sucked out of it by success.

Foxit is a good example... Before version 5.0, it was a great little program, and then suddenly they started adding skins and all sorts of other garbage. It's still better than Acrobat Reader by pretty much any measure, but it's already well on the path to joining Acrobat Reader in the land of pointless bloat.

And of course we are also to blame. We want more features, but we also want programs that are smaller and use fewer resources with perfect security. We don't want to pay for it, we don't want to wait for it, and we're extremely quick to judge even though the vast and overwhelming majority of us have absolutely no programming experience whatsoever.

Welcome to the real world.