From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Richard Stallman Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: [levoy@cs.stanford.edu: Poor performance over DSL link] Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 13:35:49 -0400 Sender: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: References: <5xelc3o4wq.fsf@kfs2.cua.dk> <15740.26119.925739.482991@electrolux.Stanford.EDU> <5xznuptn3o.fsf@kfs2.cua.dk> <200209112003.g8BK3ph20627@wijiji.santafe.edu> <5x7khsp2y9.fsf@kfs2.cua.dk> <5xhegunctj.fsf@kfs2.cua.dk> Reply-To: rms@gnu.org NNTP-Posting-Host: localhost.gmane.org X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1032025676 21029 127.0.0.1 (14 Sep 2002 17:47:56 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 17:47:56 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org Return-path: Original-Received: from quimby.gnus.org ([80.91.224.244]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 17qH1P-0005Sw-00 for ; Sat, 14 Sep 2002 19:47:55 +0200 Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by quimby.gnus.org with esmtp (Exim 3.12 #1 (Debian)) id 17qHds-0004IL-00 for ; Sat, 14 Sep 2002 20:27:40 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10) id 17qH1c-0005Kl-00; Sat, 14 Sep 2002 13:48:08 -0400 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.10) id 17qGpv-0001Kc-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 14 Sep 2002 13:36:03 -0400 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.10) id 17qGpj-0001JB-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 14 Sep 2002 13:35:58 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([199.232.76.164]) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10) id 17qGpi-0001J4-00 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Sat, 14 Sep 2002 13:35:50 -0400 Original-Received: from rms by fencepost.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.10) id 17qGph-0006hB-00; Sat, 14 Sep 2002 13:35:49 -0400 Original-To: storm@cua.dk In-reply-to: <5xhegunctj.fsf@kfs2.cua.dk> (storm@cua.dk) Errors-To: emacs-devel-admin@gnu.org X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Emacs development discussions. List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:7903 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.devel:7903 Here is the old message. From: "Kim F. Storm" To: rms@gnu.org CC: miles@gnu.org, storm@filanet.dk, emacs-pretest-bug@gnu.org In-reply-to: <200012121602.JAA23121@wijiji.santafe.edu> (message from Richard Stallman on Tue, 12 Dec 2000 09:02:15 -0700 (MST)) Subject: Re: Performance running emacs with X over 64 kbps link. References: <200012072142.eB7LgkF24504@mail.filanet.dk> <200012081646.JAA14693@wijiji.santafe.edu> <200012110930.eBB9UrF06342@mail.filanet.dk> <200012111700.KAA21073@wijiji.santafe.edu> <200012121602.JAA23121@wijiji.santafe.edu> Content-Type: text Content-Length: 1997 > Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2000 09:02:15 -0700 (MST) > From: Richard Stallman > > Optimizing emacs' wire efficiency when using the X protocol may be > interesting but there are certainly many more important things to do... > > I agree it is not of first-level importance. > And it makes sense to tell people in this situation > "Turn off features A, B and C for faster operation." > > Still, it does matter to some extent. It could be worth figuring out > which features to advise them to turn off, and if something is > gratuitously slow in how it uses X, speeding it up would be good for > everyone. I have been digging a little further into this issue. I was wondering why emacs was so slow during start-up (+ 1 minute) especially the noticeable delay between messages like Loading some-file.elc... and Loading some-file.elc...done It seemed that every package that uses 'defface' or actively manipulates the x-frame parameters are subject to a several seconds load time. I then used ethereal to trace on ppp0, and it turns out that emacs is doing multiple calls to XListFonts(), XLookupColor() and XAllocColor() - for the same font pattern and colors... Since there is obviously no caching of the information read from the X-server, it repeats those requests... which in total causes a significant delay in emacs startup. Totally, emacs exchanges ~1800 X11 (and TCP) packets with the X-server before it is ready for use... after some 75 seconds. [this is when I delay the loading of .emacs until the initial frame is properly displayed; without that hack, loading emacs takes twice as long -- see my previuos mails explaining this]. I don't know whether it is legal to cache any of this information, but doing so would probably make a significant improvement in start-up time over slow links - any maybe a small improvement in general. -- Kim F. Storm http://www.filanet.dk Filanet Europe A/S Herlev Hovedgade 82C,1 DK-2730 Herlev