Marcus,
This one was considered "it seems to be ok. We don't find any code that changes the result". I don't remember the further discussion, but was there some analysis, or it is just seems to be ok as it is long time in 3.9 line images?
It's in 3.9 for some time now, yes. But it should not be really perfomance critical, so you might not want to add it.
It does make difference, though. I like it in the image. There seems to be small small chance that some area breaks, but it should be something we can fix later.
#copy to Array, String, etc. nils-out memory redundantly (and send #postCopy for nothing), and these memory scanning is slow on such platforms. I'll experiment that.
-StrikeFontSet has been optimized to use the bitblt text primitive for bytestrings. For the multibyte path, it was still possible to save a few sends for a noticable improvement. " http://bugs.impara.de/view.php?id=1628 http://bugs.impara.de/view.php?id=1672
But you worked in that direction, so it might be already in or hard to merge.
I'll check that.
Another change that I did not send is the Gradient Cache (Eddie Cottongim) http://bugs.impara.de/view.php?id=1759 I tested it on the OLPC image, and there are not many gradients left, so it will not have any positive effect, I think.
Ah, we should think about the memory usage too (we generally favor speed over space), and as you say, we are trying to minimize the use of gradient, so probably we should wait on this one.
One changeset you might consider to load is Andreas' version of the ByteSymbol primitive fix: http://bugs.impara.de/view.php?id=1382
You fixed already the hashing primitive call, so this won't have any too big impact, but it's nice to have the best solution for that (I think this fix is in 3.8.1, too).
And, there is a good reason to be in sync somewhat.
Thanks!
-- Yoshiki