Re: [Fwd: [pdftex] pdftex 1.40]

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

Sanjoy Mahajan wrote:
> >From the texexec man page:
>
> --fast
>     Typeset the document(s) as fast as possible without causing
>     problems.
>
> --final 
>     Perform a final run without skipping anything. This option is
>     typically used with --fast.
>
> So --fast --final could be the pair of switches to add.  But I tried
> an experiment with mediocre results, using this test file:
>
> ====================== q.tex =================
> \doifnotmode{*last}{\pdfdraftmode=1}
> \starttext
> \completecontent
>
> \chapter{A}
> \dorecurse{500}{\input tufte\par}
>
> \chapter{B}
> \dorecurse{400}{\input tufte\par}
>
> \chapter{C}
> \dorecurse{100}{\input tufte\par}
>
> \stoptext
> ============================================
>
> I ran it with the attached Makefile, which produced this output:
>
>   ctxtools --purge --all > /dev/null
>   rm -f q.pdf
>   texexec --verbose --fast --final q.tex > run.log
>   Total runs    : 4 (counted by grepping run.log for running: pdfetex)
>   Draftmode runs: 3 (counted by grepping run.log for pdfdraftmode)
>   TeXExec | runtime: 7.987485
>
> Then I commented out the first line and reran it:
>
>   ctxtools --purge --all > /dev/null
>   rm -f q.pdf
>   texexec --verbose --fast --final q.tex > run.log
>   Total runs    : 4
>   Draftmode runs: 0 (just to check)
>   TeXExec | runtime: 8.307869
>
> So the draftmode saves 4% in the runtime.  But the fastest is to not
> use the draftmode and not use --final (which causes an extra run).
> Maybe I missing a trick, but the draftmode didn't save much time.  I
> guess I should make the test file read in a few huge images?
>   
try bigger stuff, say a file with some 100 meg pictures and 25 fonts ; that's what draftmode is for (one of those ideas that popped up during eurotex 2006 at our usual pdftex dev chat). 

Hans 

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