[jeffreyrogers]

This is a really cool writeup. It's probably worth noting that humans don't notice latency under about 100ms and the table at the end shows all the editors surveyed coming in under that number. That said, I've noticed severe latency problems while trying out Atom, and almost never have problems with Vim (unless I try to edit a massive file in it). But for me the latency problems I notice usually aren't typing ones, but rather other interactions with the editor such as opening new files or trying to move around text.

[rdancer]

You perceive sensory inputs within a 100ms window as occurring simultaneously. That does not mean that you cannot notice the difference between a 10ms latency and 50ms latency. Your may well perceive variations of latency, just not on a conscious level as a delay. The author asserts that high subliminal latency leads to higher discomfort and decreased productivity. I cannot find any studies on this right now, but it should be pretty straightforward to measure experimentally.

[cJ0th]

> Your may well perceive variations of latency, just not on a conscious level as a delay.

I agree. If you "want" to feel it consciously don't type text on a keyboard but play a melody on a midi keyboard. A latency of 10 ms, let alone 100 ms, feels horrible. For instance, a 1/16 note at 140 bpm has a duration of 107 ms!

I find it quite fascinating that recording midi in, say, cubase is possible at a lower latency than editing a text file in Atom.

[rdancer]

I will always remember the smooth feel of an old SparcStation 20 I got in the late '00s. It was engineered so that hardware interrupts wouldn't get in each other's way. Regardless of the puny specs, the responsiveness was amazing, compared to any then-new x86 machine, where the console would stutter every time the OS felt like writing a large block to the hard drive.

[delluminatus]

It's a good point that a lot of editor latency issues aren't specific to typing. One thing that has always annoyed me is if an editor has slow find-and-replace for large files or projects.

I also find it interesting that you claim that humans don't notice latency under 100ms as though it is established fact, considering the OP spends basically the whole first section trying to debunk that incorrect but commonly quoted belief.

[Terretta]

Not sure that's right. The threshold I've seen feels closer to 30ms, as in, needs to be under that even for casual users.

Note that even at 100 ms, most of the editors in the final graph are disqualified.