The selection listener notifications that we call under the input value setter in speedometer end up running this code: <http://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/d67ef71097da4d1aa344c9d9c672e49a7228e765/layout/base/nsCaret.cpp#639> This code always cancels and resets the caret timer, but both of those operations need to grab the timer thread lock, which can be very expensive, and this shows up in profiles of speedometer. We actually don't need to do this every time. Technically we only need to do this once per caret, or when the rate is set to 0 (to turn the timer off) or when it changes. A patch that does that seems to buy 2 points overall on Speedometer on my fast machine, it may be even better on slower hardware. I'll post it after a try run.

Sorry, I mentioned the wrong function name before! I spent a bit too much time in the caret code today. :-)

Comment on attachment 8877376 [details] [diff] [review] Avoid needlessly grabbing the timer thread lock when selections change in order to reset the caret timer It looks like you've changed the semantics of blinkRate == 0. Previously we did not call InitWithNamedFuncCallback in that case, now we do. I think we can do the change you want a lot simpler, just add: uint32_t blinkRate = ...; if (mBlinkRate == blinkRate) { return; } here: http://searchfox.org/mozilla-central/rev/d67ef71097da4d1aa344c9d9c672e49a7228e765/layout/base/nsCaret.cpp#638 and add "mBlinkRate = blinkRate" at the end. Keep everything else the same (apart from the moved blinkRate assignment). I think this would be easier to follow than what you propose.

Oops, you're right. New patch coming up...

Comment on attachment 8877716 [details] [diff] [review] Avoid needlessly grabbing the timer thread lock when selections change in order to reset the caret timer I think the "mBlinkRate = blinkRate" should be after the if-statement. Otherwise, we'll do unnecessary Cancel() calls here since "mBlinkRate == blinkRate" is still false. Also, we might miss to re-enable the timer if we go back to the same value: 500ms -> 0 -> 500ms The first transition will Cancel(), but mBlinkRate is still 500. The second transition will hit "mBlinkRate == blinkRate" and thus not re-enable the timer. r=mats with that

Pushed by eakhgari@mozilla.com: https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/mozilla-inbound/rev/db8a48dae370 Avoid needlessly grabbing the timer thread lock when selections change in order to reset the caret timer; r=mats