On Wed, 8 Mar 2000, Tom Rathborne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Why can't those scripts just _not_register_themselves_ if the required
> modules are not available? gimpmagick does this and the only problem
> is that it has to be re-probed every time the GIMP starts. The only
> reason I can think of to not install these scripts is to avoid the
> delay at startup.
Yes, and this "only reason" is quite significant for me. On a
multi-user system that mounts all Gimp files over NFS, querying all
plug-ins and scripts at startup takes more than 40 seconds (depending
on the network and server load) with a default installation of 1.1.18.
This is much too slow, but fortunately this is a one-time thing and
after that everything runs smoothly.
After the first run, the Gimp starts in about 10 seconds (5 of these
are taken by Script-Fu). If more scripts would be queried every time
at startup, the delay in starting the Gimp would be unacceptable.
Fortunately the situation is a bit better on a single-user system or a
system which has all files on a local disk, but I think that any
additional delays during startup should be avoided.
This means that it is better to skip the installation of a script or
plug-in that has some unsatisfied dependencies than to install it
anyway at the expense of some additional startup delays.
-Raphael
