Hi,
As some of you might have noticed, we're in transition to luatex 0.80
(currently 0.78.1). This binary is somewhat faster with respect to nodes
without modification of Lua code, but it also provides an additional
node field access mechanism. Luigi and I spent quite some time on
getting that done and in the process some 70 context files were adapted
(as we needed to test). However, it's likely that I have missed some
needed changes. As both access mechanisms cannot be mixed, one has to be
consistent in usage. Also, the somewhat faster (new) usage is more
sensitive for errors so it has to be used with robust (proven) code
(read: pluggable code can best use the traditional node field accessors
which also have been sped up). And of course it only makes sense for
very demanding cases (as stock luatex is already rather efficient now),
think of devanagari (where we can get 50% faster) and complex arabic
(some 25%). As ConTeXt spends > 50% of its time in Lua it might make a
difference in other places too.
Anyway, for instance the 175 fonts-mkiv manual processes 10% faster due
to this and sometimes more can be achieved (it really depends on how
much Lua enhanced mechanisms are used). Roughly I get on my win 8.1 64
bit laptop for the font manual:
10 sec luatex 0.77 with previous context code base
10.25 sec luatex 0.77 with current context code base
9.00 sec luatex 0.78 with current context code base
7.50 sec luajittex 0.78 with current context code base
(This manual loads quite some fonts in the process.)
In case you wonder why speed is an issue: it really matters when tex is
used as a service, and I like fast edit-test cycles too. The target is
to get 20 pps or more even for complex documents. It's not that hard to
get 550 pps for simple 1000 page one-word-per page documents but when
much more kicks in we quickly drop to 15-20 pps.
Also, Luigi and I also want to reach reasonable speeds on android phones
(triggered by Harald's experiments at the context meeting) but that's
another topic.
Hans
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Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
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