Performance issues -- xdvi

[Harold L Hunt II]

Marciano,

XWin.exe is not as fast as Exceed or XWin-32.

Harold

Marciano Siniscalchi wrote:

> Running: cygwin 1.5.5-1, XFree 4.3.0 on WinXP in rootless or fullscreen 
> mode; xwin.log file below.
> 
> I have been playing around with xdvi from the latest tetex distribution, 
> mainly to see if whizzytex (an almost-instant preview package for 
> emacs/latex/xdvi) could be made to work under Cygwin.
> 
> I have found xdvi to be vastly slower under Cygwin/Xfree than under 
> Linux/Xfree. Displaying a new page takes about 1--1.5 seconds on my P4 
> 2.8 Ghz / 512MB PC. You can see text being displayed almost line by 
> line. This happens both in "rootless" and "fullscreen" mode. Under 
> Linux/Xfree, it's almost instantaneous. Under Linux Xfree, xdvi is known 
> to be pretty fast (faster than Yap under Win32, say).
> 
> I should emphasize that, although my goal was to get whizzytex to work, 
> speed considerations arise when simply previewing a DVI file, by typing 
> xdvi file.dvi at the bash prompt and then paging through the file with 
> the keyboard.
> 
> I first thought this was due to the Cygwin port of xwin, or to Cygwin 
> proper, not Cygwin/Xfree. However, I eventually tried the Xwin32 X 
> server, and was surprised to find out that performance is greatly 
> improved, very close to "native".
> 
> So, the issue seems to be with Cygwin/Xfree. Indeed, I also found out 
> that other X clients (xterm, emacs) are much snappier under Xwin32 than 
> under Cygwin/Xfree.
> 
> Now, this could be a misconfiguration issue. My xwin.log file is 
> attached below. I also export DISPLAY=<my machine' IP address>:0 before 
> running clients. [I have also tried DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0, but observed no 
> change in performance, although I recall seeing a thread on the ML 
> concerning possible differneces]
> 
> Otherwise, does anybody have any thoughts? This is probably not a huge 
> issue for many clients, but the instant-preview nature of whizzytex 
> makes speed essential (basically, you need to refresh a DVI file every 
> few keystrokes).
> 
> Thanks!
> Marciano.
> 
> xwin.log file: (running in rootless mode)
> 
> ddxProcessArgument - Initializing default screens
> winInitializeDefaultScreens - w 1280 h 1024
> winInitializeDefaultScreens - Returning
> OsVendorInit - Creating bogus screen 0
> (EE) Unable to locate/open config file
> InitOutput - Error reading config file
> winDetectSupportedEngines - Windows NT/2000/XP
> winDetectSupportedEngines - DirectDraw installed
> winDetectSupportedEngines - Allowing PrimaryDD
> winDetectSupportedEngines - DirectDraw4 installed
> winDetectSupportedEngines - Returning, supported engines 0000001f
> InitOutput - g_iNumScreens: 1 iMaxConsecutiveScreen: 1
> winSetEngine - Multi Window => ShadowGDI
> winAdjustVideoModeShadowGDI - Using Windows display depth of 32 bits per 
> pixel
> winCreateBoundingWindowWindowed - User w: 1280 h: 1024
> winCreateBoundingWindowWindowed - Current w: 1280 h: 1024
> winAdjustForAutoHide - Original WorkArea: 0 0 994 1280
> winAdjustForAutoHide - Adjusted WorkArea: 0 0 994 1280
> winCreateBoundingWindowWindowed - WindowClient w 1280 h 994 r 1280 l 0 b 
> 994 t 0
> winCreateBoundingWindowWindowed -  Returning
> winAllocateFBShadowGDI - Creating DIB with width: 1280 height: 994 
> depth: 32
> winAllocateFBShadowGDI - Dibsection width: 1280 height: 994 depth: 32 
> size image: 5089280
> winAllocateFBShadowGDI - Created shadow stride: 1280
> winFinishScreenInitFB - Masks: 00ff0000 0000ff00 000000ff
> winInitVisualsShadowGDI - Masks 00ff0000 0000ff00 000000ff BPRGB 8 d 24 
> bpp 32
> winCreateDefColormap - Deferring to fbCreateDefColormap ()
> null screen fn ReparentWindow
> null screen fn RestackWindow
> winFinishScreenInitFB - Calling winInitWM.
> InitQueue - Calling pthread_mutex_init
> InitQueue - pthread_mutex_init returned
> InitQueue - Calling pthread_cond_init
> InitQueue - pthread_cond_init returned
> winInitWM - Returning.
> winFinishScreenInitFB - returning
> winScreenInit - returning
> InitOutput - Returning.
> winInitMultiWindowWM - Hello
> winInitMultiWindowWM - Calling pthread_mutex_lock ()
> winMultiWindowXMsgProc - Hello
> winMultiWindowXMsgProc - Calling pthread_mutex_lock ()
> (==) winConfigKeyboard - Layout: "00000409" (00000409)
> (EE) No primary keyboard configured
> (==) Using compiletime defaults for keyboard
> Rules = "xfree86" Model = "pc101" Layout = "us" Variant = "(null)" 
> Options = "(null)"
> winPointerWarpCursor - Discarding first warp: 640 497
> winBlockHandler - Releasing pmServerStarted
> winInitMultiWindowWM - pthread_mutex_lock () returned.
> DetectUnicodeSupport - Windows NT/2000/XP
> winInitMultiWindowWM - Calling setlocale ()
> winBlockHandler - pthread_mutex_unlock () returned
> winInitMultiWindowWM - setlocale () returned
> winInitMultiWindowWM - XInitThreads () returned.
> winMultiWindowXMsgProc - pthread_mutex_lock () returned.
> winMultiWindowXMsgProc - pthread_mutex_unlock () returned.
> winMultiWindowXMsgProc - DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0.0
> winInitMultiWindowWM - pthread_mutex_unlock () returned.
> winInitMultiWindowWM - DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0.0
> winMultiWindowXMsgProc - XOpenDisplay () returned and successfully 
> opened the display.
> winInitMultiWindowWM - XOpenDisplay () returned and successfully opened 
> the display.
> winDeinitClipboard - Noting shutdown in progress
> winDeinitMultiWindowWM - Noting shutdown in progress
> winDeinitClipboard - Noting shutdown in progress
> winDeinitMultiWindowWM - Noting shutdown in progress
> 
>