Forum question

[gib]

In order to satisfy my curiosity, not as a criticism: why is this forum program so extremely slow to respond? It isn't quite what one would expect from a company that is number one in hardware and also a significant force in software development.

[anthonyrichards]

Quoting - gib

In order to satisfy my curiosity, not as a criticism: why is this forum program so extremely slow to respond? It isn't quite what one would expect from a company that is number one in hardware and also a significant force in software development.

That it looks a very 'busy' web page and there is lots to download each time probably contributes to its slowness in loading. Plus, I think the forum software is 'outsourced' to I-don't-know-who.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

I've had the same complaint. I can't explain why it is so slow. I will pass your complaint on to the forum keepers.

[rase]

I have the impression that the response times at weekends are even longer. Either the users of the forum are nerds working 24/7, or the firm running the servers saves on reducing the ressources, or both.

[Jugoslav_Dujic]

Quoting - rase

I have the impression that the response times at weekends are even longer. Either the users of the forum are nerds working 24/7, or the firm running the servers saves on reducing the ressources, or both.

Worse still, if you compose a long post, hit "Add my Post" and receive infamous "Gateway inaccessible 504" or whatever it's called, "Back" button gives you a nasty surprise: all your effort has gone.

The more it changes, the more it stays the same: back with some software version of this Forum I acquired a habit to Ctrl+C all the contents before submitting, for the same reason. I see I'm going to have to re-acquire it...

[jimdempseyatthecove]

The 504 problem hits me too, most often on the long posts. Sometimes though a "Back" on IE gets back to the forum question page (likely cached in IE). I resort to copying message to clipboard prior to "Add your Post" or composing in Notepad or Word.

Lag times in navigating the forum sometimes exceeds 30 seconds. There is no excuse for presenting a public presence with such poor response time.

This is not good PR for Intel. If Intel is outsourcing the website you should have a QoS agreement, if not, insist on one "Minimum response time of n seconds" should be part of it. If Intel is providing the web server then I would expect them to be "red faced" enough to fix the problem.

Jim Dempsey

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Thanks for all of these comments - it helps get some traction. The servers are hosted externally.

[Les_Neilson]

Adding my 2 euros.
When I click on a thread or click next/previous thread I frequently get the "IE cannot display the page" message, clicking refresh at this pointalsogives the error.

I'm using IE7
(In a way I'm glad I'm not the only one, I wasthinking aboutgoing to our systems people to see if there was a problem with our firewall or ISP)

Les

[Steven_L_Intel1]

The forum gods made some changes that definitely improve things for me. How do you folks see it now?

[jarvusluntatintel]

It is still pretty slow. I also go to google advanced searchwhenever I want to search this forum. For instance, searching on OpenMP from within this Intel site took about 30 seconds. The same search from google advanced search came up within a second (maybe Intel's search is more comprehensive?)

[Steven_L_Intel1]

We actually use a Google Appliance to do the site searches, but it's not as capable as the zillions of servers that Google itself uses. It's also shared across all users of intel.com.

I agree that the forum is slow, but it is better than it had been. We're continuing to work on things and appreciate the input.

[DavidWhite]

Steve,

The other action that is so slow that one does not always know that it has been recognised is Forum Tools / Mark Forum as Read. After clicking, nothing happens, not even the progress bar at the bottom. Sometimes the progress bar appears after 10-20 seconds, otherwise nothing. I think evenetually the command does get through and it completes, but some interim response to show that something is happening would be helpful.

David

[ArturGuzik]

I would like to emphasize on a need of searching capabilites improvements. The standard search returns many unrelated references as it seems to be no option to narrow down the search to, say, current (or any specific) Forum (is it?), date etc. At least I'm unaware of it. It makes a search very difficult, especially wanting to find a relevant reference to another thread.

If I switch to advanced search, and query Fortran calls vb.net dll I get 54 links, however, can see first 7 only, as clicking other page numbers does nothing (in my FF) and still the same 7 is displayed. Is this my fault or web page bug?

A.

[gib]

Quoting - ArturGuzik

If I switch to advanced search, and query Fortran calls vb.net dll I get 54 links, however, can see first 7 only, as clicking other page numbers does nothing (in my FF) and still the same 7 is displayed. Is this my fault or web page bug?

A.

It's not your fault, I see the same thing (Mozilla Firefox 3.0.5).

[Les_Neilson]

There are three "search" options shown on the page (a) search this thread (b) below My Profile (with an advanced search option) and (c) at the top of the page (alongside Work Play Support etc)
It would be nice have the choice to limit the search tothe forum.

Les

[jarvusluntatintel]

Quoting - ArturGuzik

I would like to emphasize on a need of searching capabilites improvements. The standard search returns many unrelated references as it seems to be no option to narrow down the search to, say, current (or any specific) Forum (is it?), date etc. At least I'm unaware of it. It makes a search very difficult, especially wanting to find a relevant reference to another thread.

If I switch to advanced search, and query Fortran calls vb.net dll I get 54 links, however, can see first 7 only, as clicking other page numbers does nothing (in my FF) and still the same 7 is displayed. Is this my fault or web page bug?

A.

Which is why I use google to search this Fortran forum. For instance, to search on OpenMP,inside the main google searchbar:

OpenMP site:http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/intel-visual-fortran-compiler-for-windows/

[Steven_L_Intel1]

You can search just this forum from the forum main page - where you see Search This thread for a thread, you'll see Search This Forum.

[g_f_thomas]

Quoting - jarvus lunt

Quoting - ArturGuzik

I would like to emphasize on a need of searching capabilites improvements. The standard search returns many unrelated references as it seems to be no option to narrow down the search to, say, current (or any specific) Forum (is it?), date etc. At least I'm unaware of it. It makes a search very difficult, especially wanting to find a relevant reference to another thread.

If I switch to advanced search, and query Fortran calls vb.net dll I get 54 links, however, can see first 7 only, as clicking other page numbers does nothing (in my FF) and still the same 7 is displayed. Is this my fault or web page bug?

A.

Which is why I use google to search this Fortran forum. For instance, to search on OpenMP,inside the main google searchbar:

OpenMP site:http://software.intel.com/en-us/forums/intel-visual-fortran-compiler-for-windows/

Lately, as soon as I noticed that what was formally called an Intel Fortran Windows Application in VS 2003 had been rechristened a Windowing Application in VS 2005/8, I looked it up in the online help which merely mentions the relabeling but doesn't elaborate. So I searched the forum and it turned up one incidental reference. Next I googledIntel Fortran Windowing Application which responded with a 'did you mean Intel Fortran Windows Application' and issued all it found on the matter with not a hit on any one's brand of Windowing. I asked around and no one heard of the termWindowing Application in the current context. I'm more than familiar with the term windowing when it comes to filtering data and such but this new Intel Windowing has me stumped. So where on the Intel site do I search next?

Gerry

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Gerry,

I was unaware that the terminology had changed. I see that the documentation has not caught up with this. My guess is that we had too many customers selecting "Fortran Windows Application" when what they wanted was a Console Application.

The descriptions of the project types are in the compiler documentation, under Building Applications > Building Applications from Microsoft Developer Studio > About Fortran Project Types. This text still says "Windows Application". I will get this resolved.

[g_f_thomas]

Quoting - Steve Lionel (Intel)

Gerry,

I was unaware that the terminology had changed. I see that the documentation has not caught up with this. My guess is that we had too many customers selecting "Fortran Windows Application" when what they wanted was a Console Application.

The descriptions of the project types are in the compiler documentation, under Building Applications > Building Applications from Microsoft Developer Studio > About Fortran Project Types. This text still says "Windows Application". I will get this resolved.

Steve,

The only thing that has to be resolved really is that the appellation Windowing be removed from the IDE and the documentation, an ambiguous intrusion that ought not to have sneaked in in the first place. At least the anonymous purveyor of Intel Fortran project types didn't relabel Console Application to DOS, yet.

In VS, VC++ correctly lumps Console and Win32 projects together as they are both Windows Applications. QuickWin's would be similarly grouped if VC++ offered them.

Gerry

[tcsenter]

Quoting - gib

In order to satisfy my curiosity, not as a criticism: why is this forum program so extremely slow to respond? It isn't quite what one would expect from a company that is number one in hardware and also a significant force in software development.

Unfortunately, this is not all that unusual.A number of prominent IT/hardware/software companiesinexplicably implementedcommunity forum solutions that are inferior to othersavailable at similar (or less) cost, and sometimes inferior even tofree forum solutionsdeveloped by a dozen hobbyists in their free time.

ASUS, HP, Microsoft, and other recognizable-enough names launched custom forum solutions that were excrutiating for months and months, either due to lack of features, broken features, lousy editor/interface, or seriously inadequate host/server resources. Oh sure, after a year or twoof agony, they eventually do seem to become reasonably good, though rarely equalto the leading 'turn-key' solutions. And I'm not referring to communities launched 12+ years ago when a reasonable explanation would have been "Hey, we're writing the book on some of this stuff as we go because its so new." I'm talking community forum portals launched not more than five or six years ago.

With Intel's forum, part of the problem may be it selectedone out ofonly about two fairly well-financed community forum solutions on the market that are Java based. Java! I don'tknow what the big attraction is to using Java outside of cell phones, cable boxes,and mobile entertainment systems. Being cross-platform is not a defense to sucking. Sun should have been forced to pay Microsoft a couple hundred million dollars, not the other way around.

And competent hosting is cheap these days, unless you need ferocious host resources (like for say, Java servlets!). My host plan gives me 2TB bandwith per month for less than $100 per annum. While Intel certainly would need more provider/enterprise class features, its not likethe Intel Forum is giving us lots of eye candy.But on that note,I could overlook a good many short-comings ifthere were images of attractive scantily clad women throughout the forum. You gotta consider the good with the bad, after all.