On Thu, May 18, 2006 at 10:40:58AM +0100, Tony Garnock-Jones wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I have recently been building VMs on Linux (to fix a bug in the
> FilePlugin), and with my shiny new patched 3.9-7 VM (build from the head
> of svn plus my patch) the TTF font performance (Bitstream Vera Sans) has
> dropped through the floor.
> 
> I'm using a BookMorph with lots of Bitstream text morphs, and switching
> pages causes the CPU to peg at 100% in Squeak for several seconds.
> 
> Switching back to a 3.7-7 VM causes the font rendering to run at normal
> speed again - even when I take a 3.7-7 source tree, patch it to fix the
> FilePlugin bug, and recompile.
> 
> So - it looks like something between 3.7-7 and 3.9-7 causes the TTF
> performance to bottom out. What could it be? Any ideas?
> 
> Tony
> 
> PS. all this is on Debian, gcc 4.0.4, and I could be wrong about
> identifying font rendering as the problem area. I know Squeak suddenly
> seems to take a looooong time to do anything TTF related - strike fonts
> seem to run at normal speed.

I don't know the answer to your question, but from what you're
describing I might guess the TTF font rendering uses some plugin
that is missing from your new VM. Check "Smalltalk listLoadedModules"
on your 3.7-7 VM (after doing something with your BookMorph) and
see if it shows some plugin that you have not included in your
3.9-7 build.

Dave