Alex Tweedly wrote:
> If the issue is just with fonts, why have the flag be "-g" to turn
> off all graphics ?
> Why not "-f" to turn off font initialization ?
"g" is for greedy. :) To use fonts requires graphics support, and since
most CGIs don't use graphics at all it seemed expedient to consider an
option to turn off all graphics-related operations during init.
That said, you do have a compelling edge case here:
> I have a number of scripts that render graphics (resize images,
> on-the-fly thumbnails, etc.) but none that need to render fonts,
> and I'd imagine there are various other reasons why you might want
> to keep some graphics capabilities without ever needing to do
> anything with text+graphics on a server
Of the subset of CGI scripters who need graphics, there may be others
like yourself in the subset of that subset who don't also need fonts.
If you feel strongly about that please submit the proposed "-f" as a
comment in the report:
<http://quality.runrev.com/show_bug.cgi?id=13983>
I don't have a strong opinion either way, but my main interest is in
finding a solution that optimized boot time as much as possible. If
non-font-related-graphics init is trivial, I'd be fine with a
no-font-only option.
How much of a performance difference have you measured specific to init
time with v7.x over v6.x? And on which hosting service? I'm keeping
detailed noted on this until it's resolved.
> btw - I agree with Malte it should (somehow) be done per-script
> rather than more globally.
Malte's solution was to handle this in LiveCode scripting, but my
understanding is that font and other graphics init happens before script
interpretation is possible. Attempting to move that init process until
after the script subsystem is initialized seems like a lot more work
than I'm hoping for with a simplest-to-implement interim solution.
Fortunately, for the subset of CGI scripters who need graphics support,
and the subset of those running on configurations that exhibit this sort
of slowdown, and the subset of those who need to mix graphics and
non-graphics scripts, there are at least two options that come to mind,
possibly more:
If you put the scripts that need graphics support in a different folder
from those that don't, just use a different .htaccess file in each.
If you're in the subset of the subset of the subset of the subset who
absolutely must put all scripts into a single folder whether they need
graphics support or not, remember that the labels used in the .htaccess
directives for file type handling are purely arbitrary, allowing you to
support two (or three or a hundred) different file types, which could be
distinguished by whether they need graphics support, e.g.:
AddHandler livecode-script-without-graphics .lc
Action livecode-script-without-graphics /cgi-bin/livecode-server -g
AddHandler livecode-script-with-graphics .lcg
Action livecode-script-with-graphics /cgi-bin/livecode-server
Please keep in mind that this option I've proposed, whether it be "-g"
or "-f" or whatever, is just a quick solution for the relatively small
number of people who have reported serious increases in init time. Mark
Waddingham has already expressed a keen interest in making the engine
smart enough to handle these things without us having to change anything
at all.
My interest here is in finding a suitable short-term solution that could
be done by the engine team in two hours or less. Given the necessity of
using v7 on modern 64-bit servers, and the growing interest in
client-server systems, it would seem even an imperfect solution today
would be better than a perfect solution several months from now.
--
Richard Gaskin
Fourth World Systems
Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
____________________________________________________________________
ambassa...@fourthworld.com http://www.FourthWorld.com
_______________________________________________
use-livecode mailing list
use-livecode@lists.runrev.com
Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription
preferences:
http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
