Demo 2 and PW Extension v0.9 + screenshots

So in my previous demo (demo #2) I showed Dave what was then the initial concept for the plugin activity meter. Since then I had fixed some bugs and removed a substantial amount of code.

I have decided to remove the plugin recorder feature from the extension as it would not be of much use to most end users. Instead I'm considering making the recorder into its own extension, in case anyone would find that sort of thing useful. The recorder is in fact its own class, and should be easy enough to transplant into an existing extension skeleton; for now however, there are more immediate issues I must tend to, so this will be on the back burner for now.

A lot of the missing code can also be attributed to the old method by which PW made the decision to notify the user of a high runtime. The new method is much more compact - considering it consists only of about 45 lines of code vs. the old method totaling almost 120 lines. The major difference between the two methods is in the usefulness of the information each provides. The old method sampled the runtime values over a given period of time. If a runtime of 'x' or more was reported 'y' or more number of times, the system would notify the user that the plugin might be consuming too many resources. The current method by contrast samples the runtime values within a given period of time, totaling them and then calculating this as a percentage of total time (the sampling time). The new method makes away with most all of the somewhat clunky settings in the previous extension and it also allows for a far more informative graphical representation of the load compared to that of the old method.

So now for some screen shots of the new graphical components:

First what it looks like in its inactive state.

Active, with a plugin running.

Various flash content.

Youtube video playing.

Flash video loading.

Flash based game.

Can't forget the new and compact settings dialogue.

Now that the extension is taking shape for the 1.0 release and the core patch is inching closer to the tree, I'm going to concentrate on getting the performance testing under way. In the meantime feel free to try out the extension for yourself. The details are on the project wiki page: click here.