Optimizing Appcelerator's Titanium

test1.js

/**
 *    Test #1
 *    Adding 10,000 Ti.UI.TableViewRows to a Ti.UI.TableView
 *    The rows have the Ti.UI.iPhone.TableViewCellSelectionStyle.BLUE constant in them
 *
 *    Total time in my Mac: 1228ms
 */

var win = Ti.UI.createWindow({
	backgroundColor: '#ccc'
});

win.open();

var table = Ti.UI.createTableView();
win.add(table);

// Start the timer
var time = new Date().getTime();

// ==========================================

var data = [];
for(var i = 0; i < 10000; i++){
	data.push(
		Ti.UI.createTableViewRow({
			title:'Row #'+i,
			selectionStyle: Ti.UI.iPhone.TableViewCellSelectionStyle.BLUE
		})
	);
}
table.setData(data);

// ==========================================

// End the timer
var end = new Date().getTime();

Ti.API.info('It took ' + (end - time)+'ms');
// 1228ms

test2.js

/**
 *    Test #2
 *    Adding 10,000 Ti.UI.TableViewRows to a Ti.UI.TableView
 *    A JavaScript variable holds the Ti.UI.iPhone.TableViewCellSelectionStyle.BLUE constant
 *    That variable is then passed to the rows, this way we don't call Ti every time
 *
 *    Total time in my Mac: 826ms
 */

var win = Ti.UI.createWindow({
	backgroundColor: '#ccc'
});

win.open();

var table = Ti.UI.createTableView();
win.add(table);

var SELECTION_STYLE_BLUE = Ti.UI.iPhone.TableViewCellSelectionStyle.BLUE;

// Start the timer
var time = new Date().getTime();

// ==========================================

var data = [];
for(var i = 0; i < 10000; i++){
	data.push(
		Ti.UI.createTableViewRow({
			title:'Row #'+i,
			selectionStyle: SELECTION_STYLE_BLUE
		})
	);
}
table.setData(data);

// ==========================================

// End the timer
var end = new Date().getTime();

Ti.API.info('It took ' + (end - time)+'ms');
// 826ms

test3.js

/**
 *    Test #3
 *    Adding 10,000 JavaScript Objects to a TableView
 *    A JavaScript variable holds the Ti.UI.iPhone.TableViewCellSelectionStyle.BLUE constant
 *    That variable is then passed to the Object, this way we don't call Ti every time
 *    In this test, I have an object instead of a Ti.UI.TableViewRow
 *
 *    Total time in my Mac: 460ms
 */

var win = Ti.UI.createWindow({
	backgroundColor: '#ccc'
});

win.open();

var table = Ti.UI.createTableView();
win.add(table);

var SELECTION_STYLE_BLUE = Ti.UI.iPhone.TableViewCellSelectionStyle.BLUE;

// Start the timer
var time = new Date().getTime();

// ==========================================

var data = [];
for(var i = 0; i < 10000; i++){
	data.push({
		title:'Row #'+i,
		selectionStyle: SELECTION_STYLE_BLUE
	});
}
table.setData(data);

// ==========================================

// End the timer
var end = new Date().getTime();

Ti.API.info('It took ' + (end - time)+'ms');
// 460

Tests #3 is not really comparable with first two (maybe #2 and #3, but for "createTableViewRow" VS object-literal).

On Android, caching object's properties does not make any significant difference because v8 is amazing piece of software that does that automatically. :)

I should have specified, this was an iPhone simulator test.
Number 3 is different, I know, but it's just to show that if the TableViewRows are going to be simple, you're better off using a literal obj

Great stuff. Many people to not think about the fact that the are crossing the 'krull bridge' when calling a Ti object - even a constant.

That's very interesting!
Using test2.js it took about 960ms for me, then I tried something different that cut it down to 806 ms.
What I did was also put the function Ti.UI.createTableViewRow in some var (var createRow = Ti.UI.createTableViewRow), and use that var inside the loop. Seems to help a little bit!

Code: https://gist.github.com/3056032

Hrm. I need to look at this a bit closer. We have one app that creates a table with nearly 1000 rows which each have 2 labels. Wondering how much time I can chop off using freddy's findings.

I hope that you understand that doing this: var createRow = Ti.UI.createTableViewRow; can be problematic in JS.

I used similar optimizations when there was only Rhino available on Android, but I used this: var UI = Ti.UI;

That's safer to do and it brings some minor performance improvements, but now when we have v8, that kind of optimizations are useless on Android.