Re: Debian Policy based on the wrong technical assumptions
>>>>> "Fernando" == Fernando <alegre@saturn.superlink.net> writes:
Fernando> I fear the Documentation Policy is being based on the
Fernando> wrong technical assumptions.
Fernando> Please take a moment and read the following timings made
Fernando> in a 386 SX-25 with 5MB of RAM. It will help you
Fernando> understand what is at stake. I did the test as fairly as
Fernando> I could and I claim to be a honest person.
I'm not seeing the dramatic differences in times that Fernando does.
I just ran the same tests. The subjective difference, here, is far
less than the empirical one... meaning that for the short time it
takes to format a man page, if Lynx is a second or two faster, then
what difference does it make? On a 386-sx with `only' 5Mb of RAM, it
makes a lot more difference. Waiting over a minute and a half for a
manual to format would be excruciating.
(Fernando, buy some RAM. You need it bad. :-) It makes a BIG
difference to go to 8-12Mb.)
bash-2.00$ /usr/bin/time lynx -dump \
> http://localhost/cgi-bin/man2html/usr/man/man1/telnet.1.gz >/dev/null
0.98user 0.76system 0:02.45elapsed 70%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (7126major+2355minor)pagefaults 0swaps
bash-2.00$ /usr/bin/time man -l /usr/man/man1/telnet.1.gz >/dev/null
Reformatting telnet.1.gz, please wait...
3.58user 0.09system 0:03.95elapsed 92%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (1189major+500minor)pagefaults 0swaps
bash-2.00$ /usr/bin/time echo >/dev/null
0.00user 0.00system 0:00.07elapsed 0%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (72major+12minor)pagefaults 0swaps
bash-2.00$ /usr/bin/time snarf \
> http://localhost/cgi-bin/man2html/usr/man/man1/telnet.1.gz - >/dev/null
0.00user 0.02system 0:00.65elapsed 3%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (74major+16minor)pagefaults 0swaps
bash-2.00$ /usr/bin/time snarf \
> http://localhost/cgi-bin/man2html/usr/man/man1/telnet.1.gz - \
> > /tmp/telnet.html
0.01user 0.01system 0:00.64elapsed 3%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (74major+16minor)pagefaults 0swaps
bash-2.00$ ls -l /tmp/telnet.html
-rw-r--r-- 1 karlheg karlheg 32944 Jun 29 13:44 /tmp/telnet.html
bash-2.00$ /usr/bin/time lynx -dump /tmp/telnet.html >/dev/null
1.07user 0.67system 0:01.85elapsed 93%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (7115major+2349minor)pagefaults 0swaps
bash-2.00$ gzip -9 /tmp/telnet.html
bash-2.00$ ls -l /tmp/telnet.html.gz
-rw-r--r-- 1 karlheg karlheg 8576 Jun 29 13:44 /tmp/telnet.html.gz
bash-2.00$ /usr/bin/time lynx -dump /tmp/telnet.html.gz >/dev/null
1.18user 0.60system 0:01.87elapsed 95%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (7356major+2439minor)pagefaults 0swaps
bash-2.00$ uname -a
Linux bittersweet 2.1.36 #9 Sun Jun 22 15:16:13 PDT 1997 i586 unknown
bash-2.00$ free
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 63276 54024 9252 15464 2752 18456
-/+ buffers: 32816 30460
Swap: 122968 4940 118028
bash-2.00$ bogomips
Calibrating delay loop.. ok - 197.37 BogoMips
Fernando> Please base policy on facts, not on pre-judgements.
The fact is, bringing your system up to 8Mb of RAM would make a
*HUGE* difference in performance! (as would a processor upgrade. Sock
away some cash, I guess.) I found that the hop from 8Mb to 12Mb made
quite a lot of improvement. The computer swapped a lot less, I was
able to run X windows and XEmacs then. The jump from 12Mb to 16Mb
wasn't quite as dramatic, but did make a noticable difference.
:-)
So, for the people with ancient 3 year to 5 year old computers, we'll
need to package docs in html.
--
mailto:karlheg+sig@inetarena.com (Karl M. Hegbloom)
http://www.inetarena.com/~karlheg
Portland, OR USA
Debian GNU 1.3 Linux 2.1.36 AMD K5 PR-133
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