Text editor extremely slow

I think I have established.

Whenever any single one of these appears in text:

“ or ” or ‘ or ’

then the latency kicks in.

These are the curved variants of speech marks known as curly/typographic/or book quotes, and are commonly used, hence they showed up in all test posts.

Seems strange to me that these symbols would cause an issue?

Please note that the uncurved/straight quote marks (” or ‘) sometimes known as ‘dumb’ or typewriter quote-marks, did not cause any issue.

I suspect the reason I could only notice the problem in longer articles is because in a small amount of test the amount of text in terms of data size is also smaller so the latency is, to all intents and purposes, not noticeable, but as the post gets longer, the latency becomes noticeable, i,e, it becomes an issue!

Weird, I just tried both variations and it’s not an issue for me.

Does it happen if you introduce them to the same Lorem Ipsum text?

Ok, I have a draft post using TwentyFifteen theme, it consists of nothing more than 12,000 words of Lipsum. It works a treat, no problems.

Then I copied and pasted this phrase into the middle of that Lipsum:

“The Cat” sat on ‘the mat’

Firstly, it will take about 15 seconds to paste that sentence.

During those fifteen seconds you cannot do anything.

Then, after it appears, it will take absolutely AGES for any word I type to appear after that or before that, or anywhere in the post.

If I delete that sentence -literally the instant the last offending quote mark is deleted – then I can carry on typing anywhere within that text normally as if there was no problem.

If I then try and paste the following sentence in:

“The Cat” sat on ‘the mat’

(Please note this is not the same sentence as different speech marks are used)

It pastes absolutely instantly, and I can edit around it 100% as normal.

That is so weird, I can’t replicate it at all on multiple installations with a variety of plugins.

I wonder if maybe it’s your browser?

First, please make sure that your browser is up to date by visiting https://whatbrowser.org/

If it is not, please try updating your browser or switching to a different browser.

If it is, please do these two things:

1. Try clearing your browser’s cache and cookies.

2. Try with all browser extensions or add-ons temporarily disabled.

Please let us know how each step goes for you, and which browser (and version of) you’re using if you’re still having trouble.

Yeah, I’m unable to replicate this as well. I make a post, and drop in 60000 characters of Lipsum, and it still edits just fine. I’ve copy and pasted your curly quotes and phrases in, and it still edits just fine. I can watch the CPU usage as I type, and it goes up a little bit, but not above 2%. Memory usage seems stable (well, stable for Chrome, anyway).

Maybe some specifics would help. What browser and operating system are you using? This actually does matter, because the JS has different code paths in it for Windows 8 and for Apple devices.

I have completely uninstalled chrome and deleted all files remaining from the uninstallation. Then I cleared the cache using CCleaner, restarted computer, and reinstalled Chrome, the latest version, with all plugins disabled.

And the problem persists.

Could it have something to do with the character set change in WP 4.2?

But then why would the problem go away if I disable emoji?

The imstant a non-standard character appears in the text editor mode, the problem arises. It’s as if the character blocks something and yet as soon as the character is deleted, it works fine.

All of the other symbols work ok !”￡$%^&*()_+[]{}

It’s a non-standard character like for instance, a bullet point: ? or this: ? or these speech marks: “ ” ‘ ’ which, when entered, ruin the text editor’s functionality.

Very frustrating – and I have tested it on two different sites, one hosted by JustHost in USA as well as another smaller host based in Europe, and both show this problem with the non-standard characters in text mode.

Samuel, I was typing my response before I saw your comment.

MY OS is Windows 7 Home Premium, Intel i7 2.0 GHz, 64 bit with 8GB of RAM.

It’s a Toshiba Qosmio, so it’s a powerful machine.

Chrome is latest version as it’s just installed.

I’ve just (for the first time) logged in to IE11 and cannot replicate the problem, so it’s specific to Chrome, for me, at least.

Could it have something to do with the character set change in WP 4.2?

If it were, then it would definitely affect more than just you and would be reproducible in other browsers too.

With regards to Chrome being the latest, is it the latest stable version 42.0.2311.135 or a higher development/beta version?

Also, please try with all browser extensions or add-ons temporarily disabled.

I have the same experience as rowd1951. Only in Chrome (42.0.2311.135) and only when editing longer posts.

Activating the ‘Disable Emojis’ plugin solves the problem.

I use the latest WordPress version, in combination with a child theme based on the Genesis framework. Switching to Twenty Fifteen doesn’t make a difference.

Hi James,

Like uitdragerij, my version of Chrome is 42.0.2311.135

I’ve disabled everything and it doesn’t go away.

I’ve also tried IE 11 on the same computer and cannot replicate the problem.

Interesting that, like uitdragerij said, in shorter posts with fewer words if you enter these offending characters you’re unlikely to notice a lag.

Only when it gets longer is the lag/latency noticeable, which is what makes me think it’s to do with the whole amount of text being processed or run through some form of filter with each key stroke, which gets thrown off with non-standard characters.

My point being, this problem probably affects a short amount of text as it does a large amount of text, but the lag wouldn’t be noticeable.

Ok, I finally see *barely* a lag, but a noticeable lag nonetheless, on a Lorem Ipsum post of 10,000 characters using “The Cat” and ‘the mat’ under Chrome 42.0.2311.135, but not Firefox 37.0.2.

Considering that you don’t see it either under IE 11, I’m torn as to whether this is a WordPress bug or a Chrome bug, but it’s reproducible finally and that’s all that matters. ??

Considering that it wasn’t a problem under WordPress 4.1.x, I don’t see why you shouldn’t report it. just be aware that the developers may ask you to report it to Chrome too.

https://make.www.ads-software.com/core/handbook/reporting-bugs/

In your report, please include as many details as possible, including steps to reproduce the issue.

I was able to reproduce some laggy behavior. It’s odd though, and I’m fairly certain that it doesn’t have anything specifically to do with the emoji code.

First, I can only get the lag in the Text editor, not in the Visual editor.

Second, the presence of unusual characters does seem to trigger it. Not sure why yet.

Third, if you use the Screen Options dropdown in the upper right corner, and turn off the “Enable full-height editor and distraction-free functionality.” setting, then the lag instantly goes away.

This leads me to suspect that it’s actually related to the auto-resizing functionality of the editor area. Every time you type a character, the editor-expand.js code kicks in and resizes the editor as appropriate. However, that doesn’t explain why “odd” characters cause the issue to occur.

Okay, I can confirm that this is a problem in the twemoji.js script. I’ll report it.

Thanks both for your suggestions.

James, I have submitted the following ticket:

https://core.trac.www.ads-software.com/ticket/32196#ticket

Samuel, the problem only manifests itself in text editor mode. I exclusively use text mode which is why it is a problem for me, whereas I suspect most users probably only use the visual mode, or rarely use the text mode.

If it doesn’t relate to the introduction of emoji support, what is the explanation for the problem going away when emoji is disabled?

Surely there must be a conflict there to do with the emoji support?

Please feel free either of you if you have any influence over on the ticket I have submitted, to make comments of your own!

https://core.trac.www.ads-software.com/ticket/32196