[NTG-context] Re: Why LuaMetaTex is so slow?

[Hans Hagen <j.hagen@xs4all.nl>]

On 1/18/2024 11:15 PM, Bruce Horrocks wrote:
> On 18 Jan 2024, at 18:56, Shiv Shankar Dayal <shivshankar.dayal@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I understand that why it is slow, but the problem is that the difference is too high.
>> My book has lots of math, so perhaps that is the reason.
> 
> 
> Option 1: Buy or borrow a faster computer. You'll get your desired speed-up far faster than waiting for Hans to make changes, even assuming there is something that can be changed. I'd recommend a Mac M3 :-)

As tex is a single core process (ok, the os might delegate some file 
handling to other cores) it benefits from  jump in core speed. I use a 
2017 laptop with a reasonable fast intel xeon.  I have a few docks 
spread round with different resolution monitors (1920x1200, 2560×1440, 
4096×2160) and performance also depends on the connected monitor.

I'd be curious to know how much these new processors impact performance 
over time because the ages of dohbling performance every year are past.

There are several factors that impact performance:

tex engine : quite a bit faster in luametatex
mp  engine : quite a bit faster in luametatex
lua engine : not much we can do about

but inefficient macros and usage can offset any gain in engine.

One thing to keep in mind is that tex is an interpreter and all gets 
tokenized which is more costly in a 32 bit engine than in an 8 bit one 
(like pdftex). And although luametatex is more efficient than luatex 
that gets offset by more features that come at a price, but we still 
win. It helps a bit to know what tex does and what macros add to that. 
Simple timing operations is useless as in practice we have less cache 
hits than with a simple loop test: tex is jumping all over memory. 
Bottlenecks are often noe where one expects them.

Anyway, if one can choose: go for a few high perfotmance cores over 
dozens of so called efficient cores.

(that said: luametatex runs fine on my mobile phone)

> Option 2: Split your book into a project with each chapter, or even part of a chapter as a separate component and compile only the chapter you are working on. Set up a nighttime (or lunchtime) run to regenerate the entire book while you're away from the computer and speed doesn't matter.
Indeed. That's the natural way to deal with large documents.

Hans


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