Editor very slow on Mac Yosemite and El Capitan

[ruggieroguida]

Description

What steps will reproduce the problem?
When I try to edit any python file there is a noticeable delay for every keystroke. It's almost unusable.
The same issue happens with the Anaconda Spyder and the executable downloaded from GitHub.
1.
2.
3.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?

Please provide any additional information below

Version and main components

• Spyder Version: 2.3.6
• Python Version: 2.7.10
• Qt Versions: 4.8.6, PyQt4 (API v2) 4.11.3 on Darwin

Optional dependencies

pyflakes >=0.5.0:  0.9.2 (OK)
pep8 >=0.6      :  1.6.2 (OK)
pygments >=1.6  :  2.0.2 (OK)
IPython >=1.0   :  4.0.0 (OK)
zmq >=2.1.11    :  14.7.0 (OK)
qtconsole >=4.0 :  4.0.1 (OK)
pandas >=0.13.1 :  0.16.2 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6  :  1.3.1 (OK)
psutil >=0.3    :  2.2.1 (OK)
rope >=0.9.2    :  0.9.4 (OK)
jedi >=0.8.1    :  0.9.0 (OK)
matplotlib >=1.0:  1.4.3 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3   :  0.7.6 (OK)
pylint >=0.25   :  None (NOK)

[ccordoba12]

This is probably an issue with Qt, which is about to be updated in Anaconda. I'll let you know when that's the case.

[demcanulty]

I'm also eagerly awaiting this update. I love Spyder, it's really radically improved my python programming experience and makes me happier and more productive, but the slowdowns are frustrating. Thanks for all your work on this, Carlos!

[ccordoba12]

Qt was updated in Anaconda a couple of weeks ago. Please let us know if that fixes this problem for you :-)

[nbara]

Unfortunately not. I was hoping it would as well.

I use the latest anaconda (2.4.0), on El Capitan (10.11.1).

Qt version (4.8.7).

Please let me know how I can help diagnose this.

[ruggieroguida]

Same problem here. Using latest anaconda and Yosemite

On Mon, 16 Nov 2015 at 4:49 p.m., nbara notifications@github.com wrote:

Unfortunately not. I was hoping it would as well.

I use the latest anaconda (2.4.0), on El Capitan (10.1.1).

Qt version (4.8.7)

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#2724 (comment).

[chrisjcameron]

As an experiment, try disabling all code introspection features in Preferences > Editor : Code Introspection / Analysis. I turned these off due to an issue #1659 with Jedi and Spyder behaves much better overall.

[ruggieroguida]

Just tried this. No changes for me.

On 16 November 2015 at 22:24, chrisjcameron notifications@github.com
wrote:

As an experiment, try disabling all code introspection features in
Preferences > Editor : Code Introspection / Analysis. I turned these off
due to an issue #1659 #1659
with Jedi and Spyder behaves much better overall.

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#2724 (comment).

[jlmeo]

I just installed anaconda yesterday and am experiencing the same problem.

[icam0]

Me as well

[cchenship]

same here

[pmjandreen]

Here too

[ProtossProbe]

Same here

[jandyman]

Same here. Just checking out Spyder - new to Python. The editor is so slow it is unusable. I'll have to look for another environment and hope to come back and try Spyder again at a later date. Macbook Pro Mid 2014, El Capitan

[chrisjcameron]

Spyder runs ok for me on a 2010 MBP with Yosemite (OS X 10.10), so this problem is not universal. I imagine it would be helpful if we were able to provide more information about how it is slow and what features, dependencies or hardware configurations are associated with slow performance.

To check:

1. Check the optional dependences report in the help menu and see if you are missing any.
2. Systematically turn off the editor features in the Preferences.

To report:

1. Are you having the exact same slowness issue reported by the original OP?
2. Is the slowness in the editor, console or inspector?
3. Is it always slow or does it get slower with document length, time, etc?
4. Does it affect pasted and typed lines the same way? (Do pasted lines appear immediately)?
5. Do you still get a slowdown with All editor features disabled? (e.g. all Code introspection and Advanced settings disabled)
6. Does the problem appear in a new file with no modules imported?

Spyder installed via the standard Anaconda distribution is working for me with the following installed:

Version and main components

• Spyder Version: 2.3.8
• Python Version: 2.7.11
• Qt Versions: 4.8.7, PyQt4 (API v2) 4.11.4 on Darwin

Optional dependencies

pyflakes >=0.5.0   :  1.0.0 (OK)
pep8 >=0.6         :  1.6.2 (OK)
pygments >=1.6     :  2.0.2 (OK)
IPython >=1.0      :  4.0.1 (OK)
zmq >=2.1.11       :  15.1.0 (OK)
qtconsole >=4.0    :  4.1.1 (OK)
pandas >=0.13.1    :  0.17.1 (OK)
sphinx >=0.6.6     :  1.3.1 (OK)
psutil >=0.3       :  3.3.0 (OK)
rope >=0.9.2       :  0.9.4 (OK)
jedi >=0.8.1;<0.9.0:  0.9.0 (NOK)
matplotlib >=1.0   :  1.5.0 (OK)
sympy >=0.7.3      :  0.7.6.1 (OK)
pylint >=0.25      :  1.4.2 (OK)

[ccordoba12]

@chrisjcameron is right, on my tests I haven't found the kind of slowness you're describing (else I would've solved it already :-)

Another important thing to let us know is if you're using Anaconda, our DMG installer or another method of installation.

[pmjandreen]

I normally use the Anaconda Spyder which is the one that is extremely laggy for me at the moment. I tried the DMG installer today and didn't experience the slowness.

[chrisjcameron]

@pmjandreen When you use the help and open a bug report, you get a list of installed packages. Are there any differences in version number or packages installed on these reports when you compare the output for the Anaconda and Spyder versions?

Can you verify that the editor settings are exactly the same between the two versions and test each version with only one new document opened?

[chrisjcameron]

A comment on #2817 suggests the slowness may be related to using an external monitor. Is this case it seems like people who are not using an external monitor might experience slowness in the editor. For those of you with the issue, are you able to test with an external monitor? If you are on a dual GPU MacBook Pro, can you note which GPU is active when you have the issue?

[chrisjcameron]

Update: Typing long gibberish lines at high speeds results in a backlog up to approximately a dozen characters in the Editor. These unwritten characters are written (one at a time) after I stop typing. There is no noticeable delay when pasting the same lines into the editor. Rapid typing in the Spyder iPython console does not produce a noticeable backlog of unwritten characters.

This behavior seemed to occur with all screen/GPU combinations on my 2010 MBP. Disabling Editor features did not have an impact on the character backlog.

It seems possible that a very fast typist would notice the delays I am observing. Is there some code specific to the Editor that preprocesses text (or keypress) input as it is entered?

[jandyman]

I experience the problem on an external monitor and without. I experience it using the Anaconda launcher, and I just tried installing from DMG and see the same problem. I do not consider myself an extremely fast typist, though I am a touch typist and a have been programming for decades. To me the lag is VERY noticeable - unusable to me.

When I was testing tonight I could have sworn that I did not see the delay at first, then it started and wouldn't leave. The only thing I can think of that might have changed is the working directory. I don't know the default directory so I couldn't change back for test purposes.

I only have one file open. There is no delay in the shell window, just the editor window.

There seems to be some linkage between the Anaconda and DMG installs because when I bring up the DMG version, it knows my file history from the Anaconda version. Just FYI.

I'm pretty new to Python so I'll need help if I am to be guinea pig (which I'm very willing to be, I just need specific instructions).

I don't experience this problem when using IEP. But Spyder looks much more up to date WRT to component versions and doesn't exhibit a couple problems I've seen in IEP, so I'm anxious to try it.
But with the editor delay is it a non starter.

• Andy

[pmjandreen]

I experience similarly to @jandyman that the problem shows up gradually and becomes worse and worse. That's why I might not have experienced it with the dmg version. I only used it for a short while to test (and might have come to the wrong conclusion). My colleague sitting next to me experience the same lagging for Spyder on mac by the way (using Anaconda).

@chrisjcameron these are the differences between my Anaconda Spyder and the dmg Spyder:

Anaconda Spyder, dmg Spyder
Python Version: 2.7.11, Python Version: 2.7.10
zmq: 14.7.0, zmq: 15.1.0
rope: 0.9.4, rope: 0.10.2
jedi: 0.9.0, None
pylint: None, 1.4.4

The editor settings are identical for the two versions.

[pete86]

I experience same issue from Spyder via anaconda in El Capitan.

[chrisjcameron]

@ccordoba12: Are you able to replicate the experience of a small delay for rapidly typed characters in the editor? When I type characters very quickly I can build up a queue of a dozen or so characters that appear one at a time after I stop typing. The delay is brief but noticeable. In the iPython console, the same rapid typing produces the characters immediately and with no discernible backlog.

Do you have a sense of how these two UI fields handle input text differently? It may be something that scales with the number of characters or lines in the file.

[ccordoba12]

@ccordoba12: Are you able to replicate the experience of a small delay for rapidly typed characters in the editor?

Yep I was able to do it, but only using the Anaconda packages, not when using our DMG. That implies that this is a problem with Qt/PyQt and not with Spyder itself (given that Qt versions for both packages are different).

However, the delay shows up only if you type very fast. I didn't notice any other noticeable delay, as others in this thread mention.

My guess is that the problem depends on Qt and a weird interaction with the operating system or the graphics card. So this seems to be out of our hands, sorry.

[ghost]

So Spyder will always be this way from now on?
Its basically impossible to code...

[pete86]

I tried the anaconda version and the dmg versions (both beta and standard) and after a few minutes it becomes so slow it's basically unusable. I have tried using the PyCharm IDE instead, I do not encounter any slowdown issues here.

[ccordoba12]

@massimocaccia , sorry but I'm not being able to reproduce this problem. Without that, how could I fix it? Besides it seems to affect few people (if this were a widespread problem I'd be hearing a lot more about it :-).

@pete86, Pycharm uses a different graphical toolkit so I'm not surprised is working just fine.

---

To all affected people: please help us to solve this issue by debugging it. One option could be to install Homebrew or Macports, install or compile Qt with any of them, and see if that solves the problem. If not, you could change compiling options and try again.

Given that none of the core developers is able to reproduce this bug, reassuring us that this is problem for you is of no value in this case.

[kcarnold]

I have two nearly identical systems, both Anaconda py35, editing some of the same files. One slows down several tenths of a second per keystroke after being open for a while (usually after I've run some code, but haven't confirmed that 100%). The other is just fine. The main difference between the two systems is that the laggy one is on El Capitan, and the fine one is Yosemite. (Also the El Capitan machine has some homebrew packages and the Yosemite one has some MacPorts, but that shouldn't matter because I'm using Anaconda for everything Python on both.)

[ccordoba12]

This week we (at Continuum) updated our qt and pyqt packages, so now there's no need to run conda uninstall pyqt to have this working :-)

[ccordoba12]

So you need to run

conda update qt
conda update pyqt

to get those updates.

[zzhengnan]

@ccordoba12 Are you saying conda install -c spyder-ide spyder==3.0.0b2 alone should solve the problem?

[ccordoba12]

And the commands I posted in my previous comment

[zzhengnan]

@ccordoba12 Sorry just saw your second comment. Should I install spyder 3.0.0b2 or 2.0.0 before updating qt and pyqt?

[ccordoba12]

The order is this

conda update qt
conda update pyqt
conda install -c spyder-ide pyqt5
conda install -c spyder-ide spyder==3.0.0b2

[zzhengnan]

@ccordoba12 Unfortunately this didn't resolve the issue for me. Below are the steps I took starting from scratch.

1. conda create --name test numpy pandas: Create new test env
2. conda install -c spyder-ide spyder==3.0.0b2: Install newest spyder beta
3. conda update qt and conda update pyqt: Make sure the two are up-to-date (which they are)
4. conda install -c spyder-ide pyqt5

Choppiness still didn't go away. One thing I noticed was that even after I installed pyqt5, the bottom of "python - About python" still showed Qt4 and PyQt4. I'm fairly new to this so please tell me anything else I should provide that could help you pinpoint the problem. Thanks!

[ccordoba12]

@zzhao212, if you're new to this, please wait until Anaconda 4.1 is released at the end of this month, then just reinstall it. That version will come with Spyder 3.0 and Qt5.

If you don't want to wait, please follow my instructions in the exact same order I gave them, and drop your step 1.

[ccordoba12]

@zzhao212, I'm very sorry, I just noticed my instructions are wrong! :-) I'll post new instructions tomorrow after releasing Spyder 3.0 beta 3.

[zzhengnan]

@ccordoba12 Thanks! Is it going to be on this thread?

[ccordoba12]

Yep, and I'll also post them in our release announcement (in our mailing list :-)

[gamehere007]

@ccordoba12

hi! ccordoba12. Can you add me to your mailing list?

tks!

[ccordoba12]

This is the address of our mailing list

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/spyderlib

You can subscribe yourselves :-)

[ccordoba12]

Ok, I released Spyder 3.0 beta3, so the new instructions are:

• Run these commands in your root environment
• conda update qt pyqt
• conda install -c spyder-ide spyder==3.0.0b3

The second command should install the qt5 and pyqt5 packages (but only for OS X, not for other operating systems). Those are the ones needed to fix this problem.

[gamehere007]

@ccordoba12
hi! I got an error from my terminal:

Error: Package missing in current osx-64 channels:

• spyder ==3.0.0b3

So what is happening

[ccordoba12]

Sorry, I uploaded the packages to the wrong channel.

Please try again, now things should be working fine :-)

[zzhengnan]

@ccordoba12 Problem solved! Thanks so much for your continued help. Please keep up the good work.

[gamehere007]

@ccordoba12

Hi! I followed the instruction. But it is still the same problem that I can not open Navigator once qt5 and pyqt 5 have been installed.

Thanks!

[AidanRoss]

The same issue occurs for me when I try to open Navigator, every time I get an error that says "Navigator Quit unexpectedly"

[ccordoba12]

This is a problem with Navigator not working correctly with Qt5 (although it shouldn't have any problems).

@goanpeca, please start testing Navigator with Qt5 in Mac and try to fix this error :-)

[zzhengnan]

@ccordoba12 Now that the sluggishness is gone, there seems to be a new issue. If I open up spider, leave it hanging and do nothing at all, I get the spinning wheel of death after roughly 10min and need to force quit. Any idea which areas I need to look into to provide a more accurate description of the problem? Thanks.

[hank-nguyen]

@zzhao212 I have exactly same problem. Any idea to fix this, please? Many thanks.

[ccordoba12]

Guys, please open a new issue about this problem. I consider the
sluggishness problem in the Editor to be (finally) solved.

El 08/06/16 a las 05:10, Suinga escribió:

@zzhao212 https://github.com/zzhao212 I have exactly same problem.
Any idea to fix this, please? Many thanks.

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[zzhengnan]

@ccordoba12 It seems that Anaconda4.1 doesn't ship with spyder3 and qt5. Is there plan to reflect those upgrades in a later release of Anaconda? Thanks.

[ycemsubakan]

Hi, I have followed the steps suggested above (involving uninstalling qt and qtpy) , now I am getting this error: qtpy.PythonQtError: No Qt bindings could be found - I have installed qt and qtpy, but I am still getting the same error. Thanks!