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

On 19 Jan 2024, at 09:31, Hans Hagen wrote:

On 1/18/2024 11:15 PM, Bruce Horrocks wrote:

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On 18 Jan 2024, at 18:56, Shiv Shankar Dayal wrote:

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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.

I mentioned the Mac M3 because it's not the cores that make the difference but the speed of the SSD. So reading the source and writing out the result, plus writing/reading any intermediate files is astonishingly fast on the Mac. Also the RAM is on the same die as the chip so RAM access speeds are high. Even if the app is single-threaded, the speed increases are significant - in fact especially when the app is single is threaded. :-) — Bruce Horrocks Hampshire, UK