XEmacs has a VERY slow startup time when compiled with the "mule" USE flag. The problem is only present with the "mule" USE flag,and when used with X (it doesn't happen in a console or with -nw). It's very possible that the error is font-related; at least that's my guess. The startup times are: With MULE (cold start): n1 seconds With MULE (warm start): n1 seconds With MULE (cold start, -nw): n1 seconds With MULE (warm start, -nw): n1 seconds Without MULE (cold start): n1 seconds Without MULE (warm start): n1 seconds Without MULE (cold start, -nw): n1 seconds Without MULE (warm start, -nw): n1 seconds All the tests were performed without an ~/.xemacs directory, in one laptop. I didn't measured the times in my desktop, but the behaviour is almost identical. When compiled with MULE and in X, the XEmacs window appears and it stays blank with 100% processor in use, and all the X-related activities are slowed down; even the mouse doesn't respond as usual. This happens for SEVERAL seconds, ~10 in my laptop, no matter if it's a cold or a warm start. After that, the editor acts as usual. I've tried with and without specifying the font to use, but it doesn't help. It's very annoying, because I write a lot of UTF-8 text files, and without MULE XEmacs doesn't handle those. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.Emerge XEmacs with the "mule" USE flag, and measure startup time 2.Unemerge XEmacs 3.Emerge XEmacs *without* the "mule" USE flag, and measure startup time Actual Results: The startup time is ~5 times slower when using the "mule" USE flag, and it slows down all the X-related activities. Expected Results: The startup time should not be that different; and certainly it shouldn't affect the X behaviour. Tested in two machines, a laptop and a desktop, both x86.
Sorry, I had the times in an spreadsheet and I forgot to copy in the report: they're here: With MULE (cold start): 17.97 seconds With MULE (warm start): 14.18 seconds With MULE (cold start, -nw): 3.72 seconds With MULE (warm start, -nw): 0.88 seconds Without MULE (cold start): 3.89 seconds Without MULE (warm start): 0.74 seconds Without MULE (cold start, -nw): 1.96 seconds Without MULE (warm start, -nw): 0.48 seconds
It's a font related issue, not only XEmacs, and although I don't understand it, I've a work-around. The issue is with "old" X applications; at least it happens with XEmacs and xfontsel. The same "pause" with 100% CPU occurs when starting xfontsel.The solution is very simple: star it with LANG=en_US.iso88591 instead of LANG=en_US.UTF-8. Now I start XEmacs with an script that changes the LANG variable and calls xemacs; it's dirty, but it works. I don't know what to think about this bug; but it certainlly is not an XEmacs bug (it could be an X.org bug, though).
This appears to be a duplicate of #83769. The solution presented there is to install the intlfonts package.
*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 83769 ***