a:visited and a:link styles cause slowdown in reading offsetWidth

On Opera, if a webpage has a CSS with a:visited, a:link that involves changing the size of the element, there is a severe performance penalty when offsetHeight/Width or any type of style reading using getComputedStyle is used in functions.

The style reading functions seem to be executed no less than 150 times slower, and the execution may be up to 350 or more times slower with certain combinations. The interesting point is that, the styles do not need to effect any actual element on the page: #nosuchelement a:visited {...} is enough to cause the slowdown.

Test page Workaround is not included
Reported by: Emrah BASKAYA.

Opera | Reported on 6 September 2005.

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