Re: [Tuxmath-devel] Some updates

[Tim H. <ho...@wu...>]

Hi Wenyan,

On Saturday, July 03, 2010 10:24:48 pm Wenyuan Guo wrote:
> I've been profiling the game to accelerate the startup sequence
> further, since the last update with SVG caches. In particular, I
> wanted to hide the remaining menu loading latency in a worker thread
> that runs parallel to the starting title animation (when "tux of math
> command" slides nicely across the screen). This turns out to be
> impossible/unnecessary after a closer examination of "titlescreen.c".
> Basically, there is a section of startup code there that locks us for
> at least 2 seconds at the logo screen, polling ESC press from the
> user. Presumably the program gives the user a grace period should he
> want to quit. In addition, my profiling suggests that the total time
> for menu loading and other initializations, after the last caching
> optimization, only takes 1.4 seconds (on my machine). That is to say
> that this latency is entirely hidden within the compulsory wait period
> already. As long as we do not change that section of code, there is no
> more acceleration possible for the startup sequence (that is, 2
> seconds at minimum).
> 
> My question is what is your experience with the current startup
> process of tuxmath. I know the performance and experience may differ
> from one machine to another. Or perhaps we can eliminate that
> compulsory ESC polling period and do multithreading for menu loading
> in favor of faster startup?  Or maybe there is no more need for
> further optimization and I should move on to the next phase of the
> project? What is your opinion?

Hmm, an interesting question. I think if we want to have the logo display for 
2s, then I agree there is little point in further optimization, since you've 
gotten the loading time down below that. I guess the key question is whether 
we want to have the logo there for 2s.

For a developer who might be testing tuxmath many times a day, a 2s delay 
could become annoying. But I bet for a kid who might just launch it once per 
day, that's probably a reasonable amount of time to devote to "branding." So 
overall I would vote that additional optimization is not necessary. Anybody 
feel differently?

Best,
--Tim