[RFI] Annotations cache & progressive display of annotations

[Ian Clatworthy]

The MySQL guys recently raised the fact that annotate is slower is 2a
format than pack-0.92. Talking to poolie last Friday, this looks like
something I could help improve in coming weeks.

Before I look into it though, I'd like to start from the hard-earned
knowledge and great ideas of others. I'm sure John, Robert, Vincent and
others know 10X (well 100X) more than I do in this area. Any deep
insights, tips or branches I should start from?

I'd also like to hear from end users who use annotate frequently. How
often are you using the GUI vs command-line to view annotations? Any
thoughts on "lazy-loading" of the data into the GUI so we can begin
showing some annotations immediately?

Ian C.