Hi,

Not sure if this is the best sub-forum for these skin development questions.

I've spent some time experimenting with skin mods (XML and Python changes), so I've got some idea of the basic E2 code layout. I'm now trying to find out what areas in Enigma2 contribute to sluggish behaviour redrawing the interface.

Can anyone clarify:
- does E2 parse all XML files from the active skin at startup or only when called (eg when user presses the info button)

- does the XML get translated into any intermediate format/code to improve performance?

- are skin icons loaded into memory each and every time a menu is called or cached in RAM?

- for the .py/.pyo files, if a user brings up, say, the InfoBar, does the Python interpreter import the modules at the top of the relevent file(s) each and every time the window is displayed?

- is there a way through the Python API to write directly to the frame buffer

- can anyone point me to details on E2's core rendering system or is it a case of having to read through the C source?

The main EPG is especially slow on budget hardware like my Octagon SF228. Moving the EPG cursor down one program takes several hundred ms to refresh, where it should only be redrawing a small area of the screen. By contrst the main menu on the default theme loads almost instantly but with the MatrixHD skin, it's quite noticably slower.