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Probably it's obvious but I can't find an answer..

What's the exact meaning of idle in this case? Is there really nothing going on? Or just no JavaScript getting parsed/executed?

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damian
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The meaning of "idle" is really obvious: "(idle)" means the time spent on doing nothing.

Go to about:blank, and get a new CPU profile. The result is probably a value for (idle) close to 100% and a bit of (program) next question: Chrome debugger - What is "(program)" in the profiler?.

Community
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Rob W
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    Not nothing in JS but nothing at all. – loislo Jan 13 '14 at 03:53
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    Ok, but why does the browser spend time on doing nothing when parsing a webpage? – damian Jan 13 '14 at 08:54
  • @enyce12 The observation that "nothing happens" has to show up (somehow) in a capture, e.g. in form of `(idle)`. What's unclear about "idle"? – Rob W Jan 13 '14 at 09:15
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    @RobW I made an error in reasoning... I thought the "idle" takes part when parsing the site, executing javascript events etc. but instead it just shows the time when no actual user interaction happens. Thanks. – damian Jan 13 '14 at 09:30
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    @enyce12 not "no actual user interaction happens". Just nothing. Period. It's not like user's idle time, it's V8's idle time. The more it is there, the faster your program runs (theoretically). – klh Mar 31 '14 at 19:48
  • +1 for linking to a question about "(program)" - that's what I was looking for when I came here in the first place. – Alan Apr 16 '14 at 17:56
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    Idle no longer is included in percentage calculations. https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=218002#c2 :) – Paul Irish Mar 10 '15 at 05:15