[maemo-developers] python Re: [maemo-developers] Maemo 2.0 final release available

[From: Murray Cumming]

> On 7/10/06, Frantisek Dufka <dufkaf at seznam.cz> wrote:
> But the 2 seconds for the second time is already better if you try
> pygtk from CVS.
>
> Problem is: Glib/GObject is actually a dynamic type system. Every call
> to GTK_IS_WIDGET() will actually use the gtype system, that will call
> gtk_$CLASS_type() to get the registered number for this type.
>
> When you do write code in C, it will evaluate gtk_$CLASS_type() just
> for used classes. But for PyGTK, it used to evaluate this for _EVERY_
> class available, doing a lot of branches, function calls, memory
> allocation, ... This seems to be fixed in PyGTK CVS with "lazy
> evaluation" patch.

Are you talking about something that happens for every class, or just
during library initialization? Either way, I'd love to see the patch, if
you have a URL.

> Anyway, it still take a lot of time and my guess is the size/number of
> symbols of _gtk.so.

Yeah, wrappers add symbols, and symbols increase load time and code size.
I've made some not-often-used API optional in the gtkmm build to reduce
this slightly.

This is a fairly well known problem in the embedded world that is often
masked with splash screens. Many companies still seem to prefer the plus
of higher-level languages to the minus of longer load time. And maybe
someone will come up with a faster symbol resolver/ABI/file-format one
day.
[snip]

Murray Cumming
murrayc at murrayc.com
www.murrayc.com
www.openismus.com