Re: Why searching fonts in xetex is so slow?

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

Mojca Miklavec wrote:
> On Fri, Apr 24, 2009 at 13:33, Yue Wang wrote:
>> Hi, Hans
>>
>> Now I know why XeTeX uses 1-2 minutes to compile a simple document:
>> Each time first-setup.bat runs, it erase the user fontforge cache.
>> So if I compile a document right after updating ConTeXt minimals,
>> XeTeX will automatically run fc-cache to generate the font cache.
>>
>> Today I test a little bit, the time used for fc-cache -r is
>> approximately the xetex's first running time.
> 
> True, XeTeX runs fc-cache every now and then, but I didn't manage to
> figure out when that happens. I would suggest to ask about that on the
> XeTeX mailing list. ConTeXt has zero influence on that behaviour,
> except that it could avoid searching via fc.
> 
>> Next compilation uses about 7-8 seconds, which is reasonable (it first
>> searches the fc cache, then the texmf tree)
>> btw, can we change the type-otf.tex to force mkii to search fonts like
>> iwona and tex gyre in the texmf tree first?
> 
> Iwona? There are lines like
>     \definefontsynonym [Iwona-Regular] [file:Iwona-Regular] [features=default]
> which means that it first searches on texmf tree, but I suspect that
> math fonts are being searched via fontconfig first. The way font
> searching is implemented now ([rm-iwonar] will look for
> \font\something="rm-iwonar" instead of \font\something=rm-iwona =>
> this means searching via fontconfig first; the font is not found
> there, so it searches in texmf tree further) it is not possible to
> convince ConTeXt to search in texmf tree first unless Hans changes
> core macros (the part that has been broken for almost a year).

broken? well. the " is there because fonts can have spaces and i'm bot 
going to parse for that

Hans


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